Louisville Blasted by No. 9 Arkansas in Maui Invitational Opener

The Cardinals fall to 0-4 for the first time in over 80 years.

LAHAINA, Hawaii - Playing in their first game away from the KFC Yum! Center, the Louisville men's basketball program made their return to the Maui Invitational for the first time since 2004, but fell 80-54 to No. 9 Arkansas on Monday at the Lahaina Civic Center in their first game of the event.

With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 0-4 for the first time since starting the 1940-41 season with eleven straight losses.

Louisville showed exceptional energy and fight over the first 25 minutes of the game, but Arkansas (4-0) quickly wore them down after that, and caused the already sporadic Cardinals to unravel on both end of the floor in a hurry.

Louisville shot just 36.4 percent from the floor, while simultaneously allowing Arkansas to shoot 56.9 percent. The Cardinals, who already had struggles in the ball handling department, had their worst showing on that front thus far, logging only four assists to a whopping 22 turnovers.

They also, once again, lost the battle down low in the post in spectacular fashion. Arkansas out-gained them 38-16 on points in the paint, 28-24 on rebounds, and logged an astounding 11 dunks in the process.

Kamari Lands came off the bench to lead Louisville in scoring with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting, logging his first field goals in the process. El Ellis also finished with 11 points, albeit coming on just 4-of-16 shooting. In fact, Louisville starting five combined to shoot just 6-of-26 from the field.

Arkansas' Anthony Black led all scorers with 29 points on 9-of-11 shooting and 3-of-5 from distance.

Opening up the game, both teams performed exceptionally well on defense, resulting in incredibly sloppy offense on both ends of the court. Over the first 11 minutes of the game, Louisville shot just 5-of-15, including missing their first seven attempts, while Arkansas went just 5-of-16 but maintained a two-point advantage

This was then followed up by a five minute stretch where the Cardinals struggled to do much of anything right. During this time, they missed all six of their shot attempts, while the Razorbacks made all five of theirs, firing off a 14-3 run to go up by as much as 13 points.

Fortunately, Louisville was able to snap out of their funk and start chipping into Arkansas' lead, thanks in large part to Lands and Ellis. They contributed 10 points to a 12-7 stretch in favor of Louisville, trimming the Razorbacks' lead to just 36-28 at the half.

Louisville continued to show fight after halftime, but had trouble getting over the hump. Twice in the first five minutes of the second half, they got the deficit to just two possessions, but Arkansas responded both times.

The second response is when the Razorbacks really kicked it up a notch, and began to wear down Louisville. After the Cardinals were able to pull within five points just over five minutes into the second half, Arkansas fired off a 26-4 run, including a stretch where the scored 17 unanswered point. The Hogs led by as much as 27 with four minutes left before both teams started to unload the bench.

Next up, Louisville will play their second of three games in the Maui Invitational, taking on Texas Tech in the loser's bracket. Tip-off against the Red Raiders is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 2:30 p.m. EST.

(Photo of J.J. Traynor: Brian Spurlock - KemperLesnik)

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