• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Smith leads Louisville past SMU

Mar 6, 2014 - 7:10 AM Dallas, TX (SportsNetwork.com) - Russ Smith netted 22 of his 26 points in the second half and nailed all six of 3-point attempts over the final 20 minutes as No. 11 Louisville defeated 18th-ranked SMU, 84-71, on Wednesday night.

Chris Jones tallied 21 points and six steals, while Montrezl Harrell added 19 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals (25-5, 14-3 AAC), who have won eight of their last nine games.

"He just came through in a big way," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "That was a Michael Jordan-type performance in terms of being sick and gutting it out."

Nick Russell provided 18 points, six rebounds and five assists and Markus Kennedy supplied 14 points, six boards and four assists for SMU (23-7, 12-5), which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

"You can see why they're a championship team. They started off poorly, and we might have played at an unbelievably high level early," Brown said. "We weren't prepared the way they were, didn't handle the press, didn't handle their intensity at all."

The Mustangs lost for the first time in 10 games since moving back into their campus home in January.

Smith hit three of those triples in a 1:29 span, the final one staking the Cardinals to a 52-45 advantage with 11:33 left.

A Luke Hancock trey a little over a minute later made it 55-47 before Keith Frazier capped a 7-0 SMU spurt with a 3-pointer to cut the gap 55-54.

Smith, though, made two more 3-pointers to finish off a 10-4 swing, which extended the margin back to 65-58 with 5:58 to play.

The Mustangs never cut the deficit below seven the rest of the way.

Earlier, SMU raced out to a 26-12 start, but Louisville answered by closing the half on a 20-4 run and took a 32-30 edge going into the break.

Game Notes

Hancock finished with 15 points and four assists ... Louisville shot 46.4 percent (26-of-56) from the floor and 56.5 percent (13-of-23) from beyond the arc.