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Louisville crushes Providence

Mar 3, 2011 - 4:05 AM Louisville, KY (Sports Network) - Kyle Kuric poured in 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds, as 11th-ranked Louisville pulled away from Providence in an 87-60 decision at the KFC Yum! Center.

Senior Preston Knowles, playing in his final home game, supplied 20 points, 10 boards and five assists. It was his first career double-double for the Cardinals (23-7, 12-5 Big East), who have won 10 of their last 11 meetings with the visitors. Providence took the season's first matchup, back on January 22.

Chris Smith provided 12 points and six rebounds off the bench, while Peyton Siva contributed five points, seven assists and six boards for Louisville, which finished 19-2 at home this season.

"This team restores the faith in everything you believe in as a coach," said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. "We never lost two in a row in a very difficult conference, we played very entertaining and exciting basketball with a lot of character. There's not a team I would have more faith in than this team going into any environment."

Vincent Council scored 20 for Providence. Marshon Brooks, the conference's top scorer, was held to just 12 points on 3-for-13 shooting for the Friars (14-16, 3-14), who dropped their seventh in a row after shooting 33 percent from the floor (24-for-73).

Providence played without sophomore guard Duke Mondy due to a coach's decision. He also did not play in Sunday's loss to Marquette for the same reason.

Council's jump shot gave Providence a 16-9 edge inside just over four minutes into the game before Louisville took the lead for good and went to clinch a double-bye into the quarterfinals of next week's Big East Tournament.

The hosts went on an 18-4 run to assume a 27-20 advantage with 6 1/2 minutes remaining before the break.

Providence scored the next five points before the Cardinals embarked on an 11-2 burst to push their lead to 38-27 on a Smith triple with 2 1/2 minutes left.

Louisville led 45-35 at the half and were able to extend the margin to 14 on back-to-back triples by Kuric and Knowles with slightly less than 16 minutes remaining.

A Knowles foul shot put the Cards up 69-49 with under eight minutes to play and they were never threatened the rest of the way.

Game Notes

The Cardinals lead the all-time series, 11-5, and have won all six meetings as the host...Louisville head coach Rick Pitino is 7-1 against Providence, whom he led to the 1987 Final Four...Kuric knocked down 11-of-18 shots while Knowles made 7-of-15...Terrence Jennings added eight points and six boards for Louisville, which outscored Providence 54-34 in the paint...The Cardinals were 7-for-26 from long distance, the 22nd time this season they have made seven- or-more three-pointers in a game...Wednesday was the first time in 24 games that Brooks did not lead Providence in scoring. He did add seven assists and six rebounds...The Friars were 4-for-17 from beyond the arc and had only seven assists...Providence 0-10 in true road games and 0-9 away from home in the conference.