Cardinals Claim 77-69 Victory over Ottawa in Men's Basketball Exhibition

Four Cardinals reach double figures at U of L forces 24 turnovers

Sept. 3, 2006

OTTAWA, Canada - The University of Louisville forced 24 turnovers and gathered 15 steals in winning 77-69 at the University of Ottawa in an exhibition game on Sunday afternoon.

Sophomore guard Terrance Williams and freshman guard Edgar Sosa paced the Cardinals with 13 points apiece. Josh Gibson Bascombe led Ottawa with 13 points and four steals.

"We're not passing the ball enough," said U of L Coach Rick Pitino. "We had a more frenetic pace than our game last night with a little more chaos defensively. It wasn't as pleasing to the eye, but that's the way we're trying to play. We'd like to pick it up even more than we did today. We need to learn to play more effectively in a fast-paced game."

The Cardinals had built a 14-point lead in the first half before Ottawa closed to within six points as U of L led 39-33 at halftime. The Cardinals started slowly in the second half, with the Gee-Gees pulling within a bucket at 41-39 with 15:46 remaining. That's when Sosa and fellow freshman guard Jerry Smith combined to score the Cardinals' next 13 points and give U of L a 54-43 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining. Louisville led by as many as 18 points, the last time with three and a half minutes remaining.

Despite forcing many turnovers off pressure defense, Ottawa shot 46 percent from the field to Louisville's 43.1 percent accuracy. The Cardinals hit 10-of-25 three-point goals with six players connecting from that range. Ottawa, which posted an 18-4 record last season, defeated LaSalle 89-88 in an exhibition game yesterday.

"We didn't pass the ball as well as well as we can and we didn't play very good defense," said Juan Palacios, who scored 10 points and collected four steals. "We have a good talented team that plays pretty well on offense, but we've got to step it up on the defensive end."



Freshman guard Jerry Smith contributed 10 points and sophomore guard Will Scott added nine.

"We didn't play as well as we wanted to today, but came through with the victory," said Williams, who grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and handed out five assists. "We've still got a lot to learn with such a young team and only 10 days of practice. These games in Canada are a great learning experience for us."

The Cardinals will close its Canadian trip with a game against Laurentian University on Monday (Sept. 4) at 11 a.m., a game that will be played at Carleton's Raven's Nest. The game will be aired live on WKRD (790 AM).