Sports
Ohio Men’s Basketball struggles to stop Louisville offense and fall to No. 12 Cardinals
By: Andrew Bowlby
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WOUB) – Ohio Men’s Basketball (1-3) continued their gauntlet non-conference schedule to start the 2025-26 season by facing arguable their toughest test Saturday. The Bobcats were in Louisville facing the No. 12 ranked Cardinals (4-0). Ohio got behind early and could never pull back into the game falling 106-81.
“Proud of our guys for battling, we competed for 40 minutes,” head coach Jeff Boals said.
Louisville got started with back-to-back made threes from Isaac McKeenly who came into Saturday with 10 makes from deep in the Cardinals first three games.
Ohio got its first points of the game on a perfect backdoor pass by Javan Simmons to Aidan Hadaway for an emphatic slam.
While Ohio did make a handful of its early shots, they were turning the ball over and losing possessions to simple mistakes. Jackson Paveletzke had three of the Bobcats first four turnovers, and a pair of the giveaways came on inbound plays after Louisville made shots.
“They put so much pressure on you defensively to get the ball across half court,” Boals said.
The offense went into a stretch where it made just one of seven shots and Louisville began to create separation.
The game was also incredibly physical and the officials were calling it tight. Louisville was in the bonus at the 12:31 mark in the first half, and Ohio got there just over a minute later. The peak of intensity in the first half came in the aftermath of a Cardinals made three. Following Adrian Wooley’s corner make, Hadaway was knocked down in the paint by Kasean Pryor.
Pryor was assessed a flagrant one for the contact and Hadaway received a technical. Dior Conners knocked in a three off the glass on the possession from the flagrant, and after all the chaos Ohio trialed 31-23. From that point the Louisville offense really began to separate.
Wooley added the Cardinals sixth made three of the first half and it was followed up with play in transition. It led to a pair of makes by McKneely from deep giving Louisivlle a 49-35 lead. They continued to build on that and took a 59-44 lead into halftime.
At the break, there were two stark differences between the teams. Louisville was winning both the turnover and three-point shooting battles. Ohio’s mistakes on offense and inability to guard the perimeter had them down double digits on the road.
On a made three by Paveletzke, Ohio was within 12 points, but that would be as close as the Bobcats could get in making a comeback effort. There was no lack of fight from Ohio as they pushed but they simply couldn’t match the Cardinals scoring.
Louisville settled back in and answered. Ryan Conwell made the Cardinals third three of the half and put Louisville back up by 20 at 79-59.
Ohio got a strong contribution from freshman guard JJ Kelly in the second half. He scored a career-high 11 points and provided a spark in what was the best game of his young career.
“JJ is going to be really good. He’s very athletic, made some good defensive play and he’s going to continue to grow,” Boals said.
Louisville finished the game off controlling play wining 106-81 and improved to 4-0 on the season.
The Cardinals stellar freshman Mikel Brown Jr. nailed a dagger triple that put Louisville over 100 points for the third time this season. It was the first time since Feb. 10, 2024, against Arkansas State that Ohio gave up over 100 points.
The Bobcats ended a tough two-game road trip against Saint Mary’s and Louisville and will return to the Convo next week. Despite a 0-2 record on the trip, Ohio still experienced growth.
“Great opportunities for our program, for our players,” Boals said. “They’re hard to prep for but it was really good for our guys to play in an environment like this.”
Ohio returns home on Wednesday to host Bethune-Cookman in the first game of the 2025 Sunshine Slam. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and will be aired on ESPN+.