But how the Cardinals authored Monday night’s 99-54 rout of Spalding, a local Division III program, at the KFC Yum! Center was vastly different than how they went about dispatching Young Harris College of the DII ranks by 47 points last week.

Instead of scorching the nets from 3-point range, they won by attacking the rim and creating chaos defensively. It was good enough to fall just shy of crossing the century mark for the fourth time during Kelsey’s brief tenure and sweep preseason exhibition play for the first time since the 2021-22 campaign.

U of L forced 28 turnovers, 21 of which were steals, and turned them into 45 points.

Per statistician Kelly Dickey, this was only the third time in program history it has logged at least 20 steals and assists during a game. The other two times were against Morgan State in 1998 and against Tulsa in 1975.