Cardinals Deal Bruins 97-80 Defeat

Cincinnati’s upset victory against Louisville Thursday night ultimately hurt UCLA more than the Cardinals.

Blasted by Coach Denny Crum for a lack of effort against the Bearcats, the eighth-ranked Cardinals turned around Sunday and torched UCLA, 97-80, in front of 19,455 at Freedom Hall and a national television audience.

It was the third time in 1 1/2 seasons under Coach Jim Harrick that the Bruins were steamrolled on network television. Last season, they lost TV games at North Carolina, 104-78, and at Arizona, 102-64.

Crum hinted afterward that he had seen this one coming.

“I didn’t think there was any question that we’d play better and a lot harder than we did the other night,” he said. “This shows you the importance of mental preparedness.

“I told our players that all I was looking for today was maximum effort. I don’t think we’ll play that well every game, but when you’re ready to play and you play hard, good things are going to happen for you.”

The good things included six Cardinals in double figures and 57.6% shooting, high for a Bruin opponent this season.

Said Harrick: “They just spanked us, no question about it.”

Louisville (10-2) jumped out to leads of 9-0 and 20-3 as the Bruins, whose 39.7% shooting was their worst since the opener, missed nine of their first 10 shots and had eight turnovers in the opening nine minutes.

It was 20-5 when swingman Jerome Harmon, perhaps Louisville’s most talented player, and forward Tony Kimbro, a regular starter who was benched in favor of Cornelius Holden, entered the game. Holden, a sophomore from Crenshaw High, scored 11 points in his first start.

UCLA (9-2) cut its deficit to 31-20 with a 7-0 run midway through the first half, but by halftime the Cardinals’ lead had grown to 51-29.

The Bruins, who made 51.4% of their shots in the second half after making only 27.8% in the first, closed to within 73-60 with 8:16 left before the relentless Cardinals again pulled away.

Harmon gave credit for the big effort to Cincinnati.

“That game helped us in a sense,” he said of the 71-66 loss in the Cardinals’ Metro Conference opener. “We thought we could go in and beat anybody, whether we played bad or not. That game woke us up. After losing to a team we shouldn’t, we wanted to come back and play as hard as we can.”

“We didn’t want a repeat of Thursday night, when we were lackadaisical,” said Felton Spencer, Louisville’s 7-foot center. “We wanted to go to the boards, rebound, play defense and run.”

As it had last month in its only previous loss, an 86-84 decision at Notre Dame, UCLA ran into early foul trouble, hindering any hope of a comeback.

Don MacLean, who scored a season-low nine points on four-of-10 shooting, played most of the second half with four fouls, as did guard Gerald Madkins, who matched a career-high by scoring 15 points to lead UCLA in scoring for the first time in his career.

Five Bruins ended the game with four fouls, including reserve guard Mitchell Butler, who also was called for a technical.

“I said something that wasn’t appropriate,” said Butler, who kicked the basket support in protest of a call.

Harmon scored 23 points in 28 minutes to lead Louisville, which also had 17 points each from Spencer and guard LaBradford Smith. Spencer led Louisville with nine rebounds and Smith had 12 assists.

Forwards Holden and Everick Sullivan combined for 24 points to outscore UCLA’s more ballyhooed pair of MacLean and Trevor Wilson. Wilson had 14 points and nine rebounds, but made only four of 13 shots.

“They’re good players, but everybody got a little tired of hearing about MacLean and Wilson,” Sullivan said of the Bruin forwards, whose combined total of 23 points was more than 18 below their average. “I don’t want to hear about the other team. I want to hear about ours.”

The Cardinals were heard loud and clear by the Bruins.

“They pretty much did what they wanted,” MacLean said.

Said Wilson: “They were on fire.”

It was UCLA that got burned.

UCLA Notes

UCLA is 0-4 at Louisville, where it has never lost by less than eight points. . . . Don MacLean failed to score in double figures only twice in 41 previous games at UCLA and not at all this season. . . . Darrick Martin had 14 points and seven assists for UCLA, but made only four of 13 shots. . . . Gerald Madkins had scored only 12 points on three-of-15 shooting in four games before Sunday, when he was five of eight from the field. . . . Only Notre Dame had shot better than 50% against UCLA before Sunday.

Coach Denny Crum of Louisville, on his decision to start Cornelius Holden over Tony Kimbro, who had started all but one of the Cardinals’ past 76 games: “It had something to do with taking the pressure off Tony, more than anything else.” Kimbro, averaging less than five points a game, has been criticized for his slow start. . . . Louisville made only 41.9% of its shots against Cincinnati.