LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University men's basketball team faced its second straight top 10 Division I foe tonight, falling 62-54 to cross-town rival the 8th-ranked Louisville Cardinals in an exhibition game played tonight at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Knights played the Cardinals pretty close all night with UoL's largest lead of 11 points coming at the 14:20 mark of the second half.  Bellarmine battled back to close the gap to just three at the 5:44 mark, but the Cardinals kept the Knights at bay to post the 8-point victory.

Bellarmine's Jeremy Kendle put up 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting to claim game-high honors, while the host Cardinals were led by Jared Swopshire and Chane Behanan who both had 14 points and nine rebounds.

The Knights got an all around performance from Braydon Hobbs, who posted 10 points, five assists, four rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot.  

Both the Knights and Cardinals had glaring weak spots on the stat sheet. Bellarmine lost the battle of the boards 40-24, and Louisville made just one of 13 from 3-point range.

Despite their shooting woes from behind the arc, the Cardinals still managed to connect on an even 50 percent of their field goal attempts. Bellarmine, which led the nation in shooting last year, shot just 39.6 from the field.

The coaches, however, were mostly upbeat after the game, convinced that their teams will benefit from tonight's exhibition.

“You are going to learn when you are playing the eighth-ranked team in the country with a Hall of Fame coach and the greatest fans in the world,” said Bellarmine Coach Scott Davenport.

He said playing stiff competition shows areas that need work. “We pride ourselves on three defensive stops in a row each half. We only got that once tonight,” Davenport said. “We pride ourselves on three scores in a row, three times each half and we never got that. We are just not a fluid consistent team right now.”

Louisville Coach Rick Pitino said he thought Bellarmine was a good opponent for an exhibition game. “I thought it was a really good experience for us to play against five perimeter guys,” Pitino said. “They are about as difficult a team to guard because of their cutting and passing skills and are as good as you'll find in the country.”

Pitino added, “This was as good as any scrimmage tonight. You had to guard back cuts, you had to talk switches and talk on the screens. You had to guard big on small off the dribble and talk in transition so this was as good from a communication standpoint. It was awesome for us. “

The game opened in a light-hearted fashion, as Pitino presented Davenport (his former assistant) a gift to commemorate Bellarmine's national championship last season—a pair of Gucci shoes.  

Bellarmine fans probably noticed that the starting lineup looked a bit different with Hobbs and Luke Sprague starting on the bench in favor of Keisten Jones and Aaron Robison.
“That (lineup) was predetermined back in August,” said Davenport.  “We have learned the hard way that if a guy gets a jammed thumb or turns an ankle on Thursday, he can't go on Saturday. You insert a guy in the lineup, and he has to overcome the magnitude of him starting. You have to let them experience it.”

The Knights now travel to Cincinnati's Cintas Center to meet the No. 15 Xavier Musketeers in an exhibition on Saturday night at 6 p.m. 

Bellarmine will open its regular season on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Knights Hall against Saginaw Valley.  Tip is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.