Hoosier Loser: Louisville Basketball wins big over Indiana

Louisville basketball showed up ready to take down another rival on a neutral court.

Written by

Matt Osbourn

For the second time this week, the Louisville Cardinals played a game in which one team came out and hit the other in the mouth: a blow from which the receiver would never recover. Fortunately, for Pat Kelsey and Louisville basketball, his team channeled Iron Mike Tyson on Saturday afternoon, starting the game on an unanswered sixteen point run that was, ultimately, an early knock out.

The Indiana Hoosiers wouldn’t find the bottom of the bucket until the seventh minute of the first half, ended up down by as many as twenty and, though they managed to cut the lead to seven within the final minute, spent the entire afternoon chasing the Cards.

And that's how we do it in The Ville#GoCards pic.twitter.com/KjhuBYnltT
— Louisville Men's Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) December 6, 2025

Hoosiers still fighting

Following a lob that broke the scoring drought, the awakened Hoosiers did everything in their power to make a game of it. Tucker DeVries came alive, taking advantage of four straight Louisville turnovers to cut the lead in half on his way to a game-high 26 points. Sananda Fru stopped the run with a three, which Indiana responded to with two triples of their own.

Ryan Conwell, however, was always there to step in when Hoosier baskets threatened to become real rallies. His three at 7:44 made it 24-16, after which he countered four IU points with five of his own. A Kobe Rodgers three made it 36-23 with 3:18 remaining in the first, at which point the Hoosiers’ leading scorer, DeVries, caught his third foul. Louisville took a fourteen point lead into the half, 41-27.

Cards just too consistent

Indiana basketball attacked the basket at the start of the second half, scoring six paint points punctuated by a DeVries three that went in on a very friendly bounce. Kobe Rodgers was there, however, knocking down a three of his own: 52-39 with 14:41 remaining. Another IU triple cut the lead to single digits, but Conwell came to the rescue again, connecting from long range and then thrice from the charity stripe: 58-46.

Mikel Brown, Jr. finally got his first point, from the line with ten minutes to play, expanding the lead to 62-48. Turnovers allowed the Cards’ lead to reach 75-56 with 4:49 remaining, a lead which IU dwindled to seven in the final minute, but this game was just never really in Indiana’s reach.

Another Isaac McKneely three made the lead double digits again, with 48.3 seconds to play. In spite of a valiant effort to get everything they could out of the final 40 seconds, another IU turnover sealed the deal: the Cards dribbled it out, finishing on top 87-78.

WATCH: State of Louisville Live! post-game following Louisville v. Arkansas

Article continues below.

Fayetteville to Indianapolis

Following a difficult performance against Arkansas, Ryan Conwell showed up in a big way for Louisville. Playing in front of his family in his hometown, Conwell was a consistent form of offensive production and defensive intensity: truly a return to form for the transfer portal prize. Splitting his twenty one point performance almost evenly between the halves, Conwell lead all Louisville scorers in what was a remarkably balanced day for UofL on offense.

Mikel Brown, Jr. finished with nine points, just a free throw shy of the entire starting five scoring in double figures (McKneely and J’Vonne Hadley each scored fifteen, Fru had 12), with Kobe Rodgers adding a dozen of his own from the bench. Following the abysmal shooting day against John Calipari’s Razorbacks, it was refreshing and, admittedly, somewhat relieving, to see the Cards sustained and consistent against a ranked Indiana team that was playing in its home state.

The Cards needed to win this type of game in the way they did after the event in Bud Walton Arena. Against the Razorbacks, Kelsey professed that his team would need nastiness in order to win in Fayetteville: the Cards were not so much nasty as they were sad. Arkansas dominated every physical aspect of the game, cleaning up on the offensive glass in the second half and ultimately keeping the Cardinal rally at bay.

Much like the Cards earlier in the week, the Hoosiers made a valiant effort to bridge their own early deficit, created in the first half of the first half. And much like the Razorbacks, Louisville responded to a persistent Indiana run with defensive prowess, offensive consistency, and solid free throw shooting down the stretch.

Channeling Iron Mike was a necessity for the Cards in this one: Indiana was almost shockingly aggressive at times. Louisville was able to consistently find scoring and defense whenever they needed it and from multiple positions. It really felt like a role reversal for the Cards: what they lacked against Arkansas, which, at times, felt like everything, they found against IU.

Indianapolis, and beyond

There’s no question that both are tournament bound, and will give their opponents fits for the remainder of the season. And if the game against Arkansas raised questions of concern for Cardinal fans, their handling of Indiana in Indianapolis on Saturday should have left any raised questions answered.

Featured picture credited to Sophia Kaplan / The Indiana Daily Student