LOUISVILLE -- No. 11 Louisville used a 26-0 run to cruise to an easy 87-56 victory over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.
Eastern Kentucky coach Dan McHale has seen it all before.
McHale, a former video coordinator under Rick Pitino at Louisville, said witnessing one of those patented Pitino-led scoring runs wasn't nearly as much fun to watch from the other bench.
"They just suffocate you with their pressure and then you start getting on your heels," McHale said of Louisville's defense. "You go from an eight-point game to a 20-point game very, very quickly.
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"You can only burn so many timeouts. I have been on the other side of those runs, and they were a lot more enjoyable back then."
The Cardinals (10-1), who were led in scoring by sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell's 15 points, held Eastern scoreless from the 7:26 mark of the first half to the 18:06 mark of the second half.
During that run Louisville scored 26 straight points, blocked seven shots and forced four turnovers.
"They obviously overpowered us," McHale said. "They are who they are."
Said Pitino: "I thought we were going to set a record number of deflections tonight because we had 46 with nine or 10 minutes to go, but we obviously took off the press and didn't get very many at the end of the game.
The Cardinals' coach has been tracking deflections -- blocked shots, steals, tipped passes, back-tips, forced turnovers -- for years.
The record came when the 2013 NCAA title team netted 53 in a game.
"We finished with 49, which is excellent, but I thought we were going to have the highest total of any team I have ever coached, so that was good," Pitino said. "But we still have a long way to go."
Eastern Kentucky (6-6), which was led by Nick Mayo with 15 points, started the game on a 7-0 run which included a 3-pointer by former Louisville walk-on Dillon Avare.
Eastern Kentucky led 12-6 with 15:32 left before halftime and were tied with the Cardinals at 16-16 with 7:26 remaining.
"We started out a little slow because we broke down on what we practiced," Pitino said. "I think that gave the other team some momentum and confidence, but once we move the basketball, once we stay with our principles of what we wanted to do, we played much better."
Then the floodgates opened for Louisville's offense and the Cardinals' typically stout defense took over. Eastern Kentucky didn't score the rest of the half as the Cardinals ended the first half on a 20-0 run, led by junior guard Quentin Snider's 13 points.
"I thought Quentin Snider made us all better tonight," Pitino said. "He made us better because he changed the angles of the pick-and-rolls, he got into the lane, he did good things, and he found people in the passing game."
Louisville entered the game with the nation's top-rated defense, and the Cardinals held Eastern Kentucky to 7-of-26 shooting in the first half.
Even worse for the Colonels, they had 10 turnovers, were 0 of 5 from the foul line and had as many shots blocked (seven) as they made field goals.
The Cardinals added to the 20-0 run to end the first half by scoring six points of the second half before Eastern Kentucky finally scored again with 18:06 left in the game.
Leading 42-16 early in the second half, Louisville put it on cruise control.
Pitino played all 14 players on his bench, including 11 players logging nine or more minutes. In addition to Mitchell's 15 points, Louisville got 13 from Snider and 10 a piece from junior forward Jaylen Johnson and graduate transfer guard Tony Hicks.
Louisville's game with Eastern Kentucky was the 15th annual Billy Minardi Classic, a Louisville tradition to honor Rick Pitino's brother-in-law who died during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
NOTES: Louisville senior F Mangok Mathiang, who entered the game averaging 6.6 rebounds per game, had 10 rebounds in the first half and finished with 13. He also had four assists and two blocked shots, but did not score. ... Louisville had a season-high 14 blocked shots, including five by reserve C Anas Mahmoud. ... Louisville and Eastern Kentucky share a number of connections. Eastern Kentucky coach Dan McHale was a video coordinator under Rick Pitino at Louisville, Dillon Avare transferred to Eastern Kentucky from Louisville after graduation last season and Eastern Kentucky graduate assistant Bobby DiRaimo was a Louisville student manager.
