Louisville Finds Its Spark Off the Bench in Bounce-Back Win Over SMU
After a rough outing against Duke that left Louisville licking its wounds, Saturday’s ACC matchup with SMU felt like a fork-in-the-road moment. Would the Cardinals respond with grit, or crumble under the weight of back-to-back adversity?
Turns out, all they needed was a little bench magic - and a lot of Mikel Brown and Khani Rooths.
Neither Brown nor Rooths started the game, but both came off the pine and changed its entire tone. Rooths, back after missing four games due to illness, brought the kind of energy that doesn’t show up on a stat sheet - until it does.
His emphatic put-back dunk in the first half was more than just two points; it was a wake-up call for the entire KFC Yum! Center.
Suddenly, Louisville had a pulse.
And then there was Brown. The freshman guard from Orlando had a rocky start - five turnovers in the first nine minutes - but once he settled in, he looked every bit like the player this team was built around.
He finished with 20 points and delivered a handful of calming, veteran-like plays that helped steady the ship. It wasn’t just the scoring - it was the poise.
The "I got this" moments that turned a jittery first half into a confident second.
“I’m not used to the weather,” Brown joked postgame. “In Florida, it’s warm right now. I’m hurting.”
Louisville looked cold in more ways than one early on. Still reeling from the 31-point loss to Duke, the Cards gave up 55% shooting to SMU in the first half and trailed by 12.
It felt like another therapy session was incoming. But something clicked before halftime - they cut the deficit to three, regrouped, and came out of the locker room with a different level of intensity.
The second-half defense told the story. SMU managed just 37% from the field after the break, hit only three triples, and looked more confused than confident as the game slipped away. Louisville, meanwhile, found rhythm - and range.
A quick barrage of threes - one from Brown, two straight from Isaac McKneely from the exact same spot on the wing - stretched the lead to 15 with just over four minutes to play. That was the knockout punch.
The bench was the difference. Louisville’s reserves outscored SMU’s 47-5, led by Brown’s 20 and Rooths’ 12 points and 10 rebounds. That’s the kind of production that doesn’t just win you a game - it gives you a new identity.
The Cards also won the battle inside, outscoring SMU 42-32 in the paint and narrowly winning the rebounding edge 35-34. They turned an early turnover problem into an 18-13 advantage in points off giveaways - a testament to in-game adjustments and resilience.
McKneely finished with 14, including those two daggers from deep. Ryan Conwell chipped in 12, and J’Vonne Hadley added 10. Vangelis Zougris gave them solid minutes on the defensive end, and Aly Khalifa reminded everyone he can stretch the floor with a pair of timely threes.
At halftime, Louisville honored its 1986 national championship team - a group that started 15-7 before catching fire down the stretch. That team’s late-season surge might just be the blueprint for this one, which now sits at 15-6 overall and 5-4 in ACC play.
Next up: Notre Dame comes to town on Wednesday. If Louisville keeps getting this kind of juice from its bench, the Cards might be heating up at just the right time.