The Louisville Cardinals continue to rack up the wins — and the injuries — as Terrence Edwards Jr.’s season-high 27 points and Reyne Smith’s 26 propelled the hosts to an 88-78 victory over the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday.
The Cardinals (18-6, 11-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) played without starting point guard Chucky Hepburn, who suffered a groin injury in Wednesday’s win at Boston College. However, his teammates more than picked up the slack as they dished out 20 assists against the Hurricanes (5-18, 1-11).
Edwards, last season’s Sun Belt Player of the Year for James Madison, played all 40 minutes and set a career-high with 10 assists. Smith finished with a season-high five dimes in 39 minutes and hit 6 of 16 from beyond the arc to become the NCAA’s active leader with 385 3-pointers.
Starting forward James Scott became the latest injured Louisville player as he exited less than nine minutes into the game. Scott fell to the floor and had a Miami player land on his head, causing a bloody mouth. Initial reports indicated an issue with a tooth.
With the 6-foot-11 Scott sidelined, the Hurricanes scored 44 points in the paint. That’s the third-highest total for Miami this season and the second-most the Cardinals have yielded.
A.J. Staton-McCray led the Hurricanes with a season-high 22 points. Matthew Cleveland added 21, and Lynn Kidd finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Hurricanes shot 50.8 percent, only the sixth time they have made more than half of their shots in a game this season.
Miami interim head coach Bill Courtney was not on the bench for the Hurricanes due to an illness. Assistant Kotie Kimble coached the team.
Louisville led 38-25 with four minutes left in the first half, but the Hurricanes whittled their deficit down to 52-49 after a Divine Ugochukwu layup with 15:49 left in the game.
However, a 14-2 Cardinals run that included treys by Smith, Edwards and Noah Waterman pushed its lead to 15 with 12:05 remaining. Miami would get it down to 72-67 with six minutes to go, but a four-point play by Smith triggered a 7-0 spurt. The Hurricanes would not get closer than nine points the rest of the way.
