Louisville guard Chucky Hepburn (24) drives against SMU guard Chuck Harris (3) in Dallas.LM Otero – staff, ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Louisville Cardinals traveled on the road to Dallas on Tuesday evening to take on ACC opponent, SMU. With the win, the Cards advance their winning streak to nine straight games.

Nine Of ‘Em

It didn’t take long for the Cardinals to make themselves comfortable in Dallas on a late Tuesday night. Louisville would once again take the lead early and never look back leading the entire game, start to finish. This was in my opinion one of the most impressive wins of the season. FIVE Cardinals scored double digits with Terrence Edwards Jr. just one point away from making it six players scoring in double figures.

Visually, it was one of the most complete performances of the year for the Cardinals. To do it against an excellent ACC opponent on the road was all of the more impressive. The Cards would score 50 points in the first half and lead the SMU Mustangs 50-27 heading into halftime.

Heading into halftime, Louisville was all over the scoring sheet. Chucky Hepburn had nearly a double-double with 13 points and 9 assists. Reyne Smith added four threes for 12 points. J’Vonne Hadley also had 12 points at halftime with two threes of his own. Everybody was clicking from the very beginning. Eventually, the Cards (16-5, 8-1 in ACC) will coast to a 98-73 victory over the Mustangs (14-6, 5-3 in ACC).

Two of the Cardinals set new single-game records for the program on Tuesday night. Reyne Smith set a new record for most threes made in a game with 10 threes. Chucky Hepburn also etched his name into the record books with 16 assists for the new single-game record.

The wild stat for the day is this is the first time this century that a college basketball team has had a player hit 10 threes while another player has recorded 16 assists in the same game. The last time this happened in the NBA was in 2022 with Klay Thompson making 10 threes and Stephen Curry dishing out 15 assists—impressive company for Smith and Hepburn.

Notables

When you score 98 points, there’s a good chance this list will be packed with players worth mentioning. Here we go…

  • Chucky Hepburn: 13 points, 5 rebounds, 16 assists (career-high), 3-for-8 from the field, 3-for-7 from three
  • Reyne Smith: 30 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 10-for-18 from the field, 10-for-17 behind the three-point line
  • J’Vonne Hadley: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 5-for-8 from the field, 2-4 from the three-point line
  • James Scott: 16 points (career-high), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 7-for-12 from the field, 1-for-2 behind the three-point line
  • Khani Rooths: 12 points (career-high), 7 rebounds (career-high), 1 assist, 4-for-5 from the field, 2-for-2 from the three-point line

Four, count ’em FOUR career-highs in this game for Louisville. This will be the first time this year, but I absolutely cannot give MVP to one individual in particular because EVERYONE played fantastic—a full team effort from everybody and because of that the entire team gets the MVP from me.

The Next Thing

Pat Kelsey is always emphasizing this Cardinals team always looking at the next thing and how the celebrations are short-lived and the focus continues to the next practice, film session, and opponent. In his words, “The most important thing is the next thing.” So what is next for the Cards?

Louisville will come home and have a week-long break to prepare for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons coming to Louisville on Tuesday night. Wake Forest is currently 15-4 with an upcoming game against Duke on Saturday before traveling to Louisville on Tuesday for a 7 pm tip.