Louisville Finishes Preseason with 71-39 Victory - University of Louisville Athletic

Wednesday, October 28

Louisville, Ky.

7 p.m.

University of Louisville

0-0,0-0ACC

Mercyhurst (EXH)

0-0,0-0NEC

Team	1	2	F
Mercyhurst	21	18	39
Louisville	30	41	71

Box Score (PDF)

October 28, 2026 | Men's Basketball

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The Cardinals defeated Mercyhurst in their final exhibition of the preseason

By: Dana Brown

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville men's basketball outscored Mercyhurst 41-18 in the second half on Wednesday night, leading to a 71-39 exhibition victory over the Lakers.

"We were fortunate to get a win tonight," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "The coach at Mercyhurst (Gary Manchel) is a long time coach, very respected in the coaching fraternity. I knew they were going to… they grind you. I say with a team like that, the system is the star. [Jake Lemelman] is their best player, but it's their system. They are going to grind you. They are going to screen you and rescreen you. And they've got 4,000 sets and they've got counters to every counter in their sets. We knew we could have picked them up full (court) and done a lot of pressing type stuff to disrupt them, but we thought it was a big challenge for our guys to defend in the half court. They had to call out every back screen, they had to defend every flare screen. There was just a huge emphasis over the last couple of days – really since June 5 – on our defense and on our rebounding."

The Cards started hot with six straight points in the first minute and 12 seconds of the game to force the Lakers to call their first timeout. Out of the break, Mercyhurst responded with back-to-back shots before Louisville went on an 8-0 run, leading to a score of 14-8 with 14:00 on the clock.

UofL tacked on a 9-2 run to extend its lead to 13 points with just eight and a half minutes to go in the first period. The Lakers held the Cards without a field goal from 8:31 to 2:41, when the drought was ended by freshman Isaac Ellis. By the time the break arrived, Mercyhurst had closed its deficit to single digits at 30-21.

Junior Flory Bidunga ended the first half with seven points, six boards and one block.

Louisville opened the second half by netting eight of its first 11 shots. The hot shooting culminated in a 19-7 run, with 13 unanswered points from 19:10 to 15:22, leading to a 49-28 Cardinal lead.

UofL pushed its lead as high as 34 points in the second half on the back of an 8-0 run over the final four minutes. The Cards claimed a 71-39 victory to finish off their preseason rounds.

Louisville outscored Mercyhurst in the paint 56-14 and held the Lakers to a 29.3% (16-67) clip from the floor. The Cardinals also outrebounded the Lakers 51-32.

Bidunga finished with a game-high 19 points and nine rebounds, tacking one two blocks and a steal. Three other Cardinals joined him in double figure scoring: Seth Trimble (10), Karter Knox (10) and De'Shayne Montgomery (10).

The Cardinals officially embark on their 113th season on Monday. Louisville faces Chattanooga in its home season opener at 9 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on the ACC Network.

"This is the end of the preseason," added Kelsey. "We break the whole year down into different segments: when the guys get together at the beginning of June – summer one, check; summer two – in the Bahamas, check; then we have August/September, which is pre-practice, before practice even starts; and then we have the preseason, which is kind of the chapter that we're closing right now. I told the guys in the snap of a finger, it was just like yesterday it was June when this team was coming together, and then LJ (Wells) and Seth (Trimble) joined us in August and here we are at the end of preseason. And now starts the next chapter of non-conference - and we have one of the best non-conference schedules in the country. And then it goes conference, then it goes conference tournament and then it goes to the nation tournament. It's the end of the chapter, we're not a finished product, no team in the country is. We have a lot to improve on and get better at, but with 11 new players that came in together on June 4, I like our guys' mentality, their commitment to the daily process."