Nov. 27, 2004
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) - Finally, Louisville evened the all-time series with Chaminade.
Taquan Dean scored 21 points and the Cardinals bounced back from an opening-round loss to beat Chaminade 93-63 Tuesday in the consolation bracket of the Maui Invitational.
The win came one day after Louisville lost 76-71 to Iowa. It evened the Cardinals' all-time mark against Chaminade, the host of the eight-team tournament, at 2-2.
"The guys focused in, respected their opponent and did a lot of good things in sharing the basketball," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "Iowa was the better team against us and give them the credit but we didn't play a bad game."
The 12th-ranked Cardinals (2-1) will play either Brigham Young or Stanford for fifth place on Friday.
The Division II Silverswords (1-2) held a 2-1 edge over Louisville entering the game. Chaminade beat Louisville in December 1983 and again a year later in games played in Honolulu. The Cardinals, who were ranked every time they played Chaminade, beat the Silverswords in the opening round of the Maui Invitational in 1989.
Louisville started Tuesday's game like it was taking out its frustration over the loss to Iowa.
The Cardinals led 10-2 less then three minutes into the game, but Chaminade just wouldn't go away. A three-point play by Chris Powell had the Silverswords within 33-31 with five minutes left in the first half.
Dean then scored all but three points in Louisville's 12-4 run to close the half. Dean was 7-for-11 from the field, 5-for-8 in the first half.
"All we were worried about was defense, the shots just came," Dean said. "We were disappointed with the loss but we weren't going to let it affect us today and we didn't."
Louisville used its size advantage and athletic ability to extend the lead throughout the second half with the final score its largest lead.
Ellis Myles had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinals, who finished with a 46-30 advantage on the boards and outscored Chaminade 40-14 in the paint.
Chris Reaves, a junior college transfer who had 33 points in Chaminade's opening 84-62 loss to No. 15 Texas, had 19 points. He was 2-for-7 from 3-point range, a far cry from his 8-for-10 effort from beyond the arc against Texas. Dylan McCune added 18 points for Chaminade, all on 3-pointers.
Louisville's other win this season was also over another school from the Division II Pacific West Conference, BYU-Hawaii last Saturday.
"It will be interesting to see which team wins their league. They both shoot the heck out of it," Pitino said of the Division II schools from Oahu. "I don't look at it as Division I and Division II. The teams we played are good teams. If we win and go 3-1 it will be a good trip, not a great trip. We're nowhere near where we want to be."
