(Sports Network) - Samardo Samuels scored 18 points with five rebounds and Earl Clark added 13 points as the third-ranked Louisville Cardinals began their season by running past Morehead State, 79-41, in the opening game of the Billy Minardi Classic at Memorial Hall. The Cardinals will take on the winner from the Florida A&M/South Alabama contest Sunday afternoon.

Also hitting double figures in scoring for Louisville (1-0) was Jerry Smith with 12 and Preston Knowles with 10. Terrence Williams grabbed 11 rebounds and Edgar Sosa dished off 10 assists.

"It was a good opener for us. I'm happy with the victory," said Cardinals coach Rick Pitino. "Pretty much every time we open the first half we have opening night jitters. Then we just relaxed and we started passing. We had five assists at halftime. We had 21 for the game which is outstanding...Edgar Sosa getting people the basketball. He did a really god job of finding that. We still have a long ways to go, but it was a good opening game for us."

Leon Buchanan led Morehead State (0-4) with 10 points. Morehead State, which had 17 turnovers, plays in the consolation game Sunday.

"We made a couple of shots late in the shot clock, but we had way too many turnovers," said Eagles coach Donnie Tyndall. "We're playing with young guards and they've never seen any semblance of the pressure they saw tonight. We just turned it over too much."

The early part of the contest found Morehead State staying with the host Cardinals. The score was tied 6-6 with 14:46 left in the first half. The Eagles had a 14-12 lead with 9:21 remaining in the opening half.

At the 5:58 mark of the first half the score was tied 16-16, but Louisville soon took the lead on a George Goode tip-in and never trailed again. The Cardinals scored seven consecutive points, starting with that tip-in, and went into the locker room with a 29-20 halftime lead.

Maze Stallworth of Morehead State hit a three-pointer to make the score 29-23 with 19:27 remaining. However, Samuels' jumper with 17:50 to play gave Louisville a 33-23 lead.

Buchanan's layup had Morehead State within 35-25, but the Cardinals went on an ensuing 18-4 push to take control. A Knowles steal led to a Clark jam to cap the spurt.

Louisville went up by 30, 64-34, with 8:22 left on a three-pointer by Clark.

The Eagles could only muster two free throws in the final 5:45.

Game Notes

Louisville now leads the series 29-12. Kenneth Faried had 11 rebounds for the Eagles as they were outrebounded just 42-38. The Cardinals made 10-of-34 shots in the half and one of 10 three-point attempts. Morehead State hit 10-of-31 first half shots, but failed on all seven attempts from beyond the arc.





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