LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ben Johnson netted a Bellarmine season-high 29 points Tuesday night against Louisville inside the KFC Yum! Center, but the Knights fell to the homestanding Cardinals 100-68.
 
It was a season breakout game for Johnson, who had 34 combined points in four games entering the night. After struggling from deep to the tune of 3-for-18 to start the season, the redshirt junior buried 6-of-11 threes to give the Knights a fighting chance.
 
Johnson had to fill void left by leading scorer Jack Karasinski (18.3 PPG), who was unable to play due to an injury, and did so by connecting on 10-of-21 total attempts and tying for the team lead with five rebounds.
 
Bellarmine did what they could to set the tone early. Billy Smith scored the first five points of the game for the Knights, opening up with a three and then making a driving layup for an early 5-2 lead.
 
After a run by Louisville, Johnson made a nice driving reverse layup along the baseline on an inbounds play with a free throw to bring Bellarmine to within three at 13-10.
 
A few minutes later Smith would again get Bellarmine back within three at 22-19 after another three. From that point, however, the Cardinals would go on a 23-4 run to go up by 22 at 45-23 before Johnson stopped the bleeding with a three. Louisville would take a 48-27 lead into the locker room, shooting 60.0 percent for the half.
 
After Louisville's lead grew to 26 on a dunk by James Scott with 14:41 left in the second half, an 11-0 run on a layup by Branson and a trio of threes by Johnson helped curb the growing lead, bringing the Knights back to within 15 at 61-46.
 
Again, though, the Cardinals would methodically grow their lead back to 24 at 80-56 with 6:31 remaining with an 18-10 run that included a pair of threes by Reyne Smith.
 
Despite two more threes by Johnson, Louisville maintained a healthy advantage to ultimately win by a final margin of 32 at 100-68.
 
Smith finished with 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. Like Johnson, Curt Hopf grabbed five rebounds. Tyler Doyle scored eight in his first career start. Dylan Branson scored eight, as well, and added a team-best four assists before he was ejected following a flagrant 2 foul.
 
For Louisville, Terrence Edwards scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, 4-of-7 from three. Kasean Pryor scored 21 and Chucky Hepburn added 16 points and led the Cards with five assists.
 
The Cardinals' size was an issue all night for Bellarmine. Louisville outrebounded the Knights 37-23, including 10-4 on the offensive glass leading to a 17-3 advantage in second-chance points.
 
Louisville improves to 2-1 this season and 14-1 all-time against the Knights in the regular season.
 
The Knights fall to 0-5 for the first time since 2021-22, when they turned their season around en route to an ASUN Championship.
 
Bellarmine is back at Knights Hall Saturday to take on Bowling Green at 3 p.m. ET. The Knights beat the Falcons in Bowling Green last year, 85-67.
 
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