PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas — Indiana lost to Louisville in their opening round matchup at the Battle 4 Atlantis by a final score of 89-61.

The Hoosiers trailed at halftime 37-29.  They were led in the game by Malik Reneau with 21 points.  Oumar Ballo was the only other IU player in double figures with 11.

The three keys to the game, highlights and final stats are below.

Indiana will face the loser of Gonzaga and West Virginia on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2).

THREE KEYS TO THE GAME

1. No show by Indiana’s guards.  Indiana’s guard trio of Myles Rice, Kanaan Carlyle and Trey Galloway combined to score three points on 1-of-15 shooting.  They had two assists against nine turnovers.  Those three IU guards had shown promise early in the season, but against high major athletes on a neutral court, they were ineffective and mistake prone.  It was an alarming performance.

2. Louisville played harder.  The Cardinals had IU playing their pace, with an aggressive defense that sped up the Hoosiers and forced them into 23 turnovers.  On the offensive end Louisville scored 30 points off those turnovers and had 14 fast break points.  Louisville’s ball pressure bothered IU throughout the entire game, and they got into passing lanes too. The Cards had 15 steals, and they forced IU’s big men into mistakes as well with an overall swarming effort.

3. Cardinals connect from three, and connected from everywhere.  Louisville was able to generate plenty of open looks from long range, and they connected 10 times on 27 attempts.  The Cards were also good at recognizing IU’s intent to run them off the line, and they got into the paint off the bounce and scored 27-of-38 from two.  According to live stats, Louisville scored 1.24 points per possession.  They shot 66.7% in the second half.

HIGHLIGHTS

FINAL STATS

For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.    

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