LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Eastern Kentucky University fell to the University of Louisville, 78-63, in Freedom Hall Thursday night, fighting back from a 25-point first-half decicit, as EKU's record dipped to 8-3 on the year.
The Colonels began the second half on a 17-4 tear to cut the margin to 10 points at 52-42 with 13:49 left. EKU trimmed the lead to 10 one other time at 56-46 but could get no closer as the Cards upped their record to 10-2 on the year.
"We competed and played hard," said EKU head coach Travis Ford. "We accomplished some of our goals in this game, but we definitely still need to cut down our turnovers (24 vs. UofL).
"This was a very physical game. I knew we would respond better than we did at Florida. We tried to run with Florida and that was a mistake. We used our two-a-day practices this past few days to correct some things.
"Tonight was a great learning experience for our guys. We hope we take something from this game into the start of the OVC (four straight road games)."
EKU fell behind early and trailed 48-25 at the break. Ford's message to the team at halftime was geared toward correcting one statistic.
"We noticed that Louisville had 17 of its points off our turnovers. You take that away and it's a ball game. Also, we wanted to get the ball inside more. We were pleased that we were able to better in both of those categories in the second half," said Ford.
Senior forward Michael Haney led the Eastern attack with 22 points and seven rebounds. He also became the 26th player in Eastern history to eclipse the 1,000-point mark as he has now totaled 1,019 in his four-year Colonel career.
Junior guard Zach Ingles added 17 points and six rebounds as Eastern won the battle of the boards, 35-24. The Colonels hit 45.8 percent from the field, including 50 percent in the second half.
Junior forward Francisco Garcia paced the Cardinals with a game-high 23 points. Freshman forward Juan Palacios added 15 points, while senior center Ellis Myles scored 10 points and snared 10 rebounds.
Eastern opens Ohio Valley Conference play Thursday, Jan. 6, with an 8:30 p.m. EST contest at Tennessee-Martin.
