No. 24 Louisville routs Connecticut

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/06/2012 - Louisville, KY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chris Smith scored 16 points and Gorgui Dieng added 15 to lead No. 24 Louisville to a thorough 80-59 throttling of Connecticut.

Kyle Kuric chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds, while Chane Behanan grabbed 12 boards to go with seven points for the Cardinals (16-7, 6-5 Big East), winners of five straight.

Louisville made 11 three-pointers, while the Huskies (18-6, 6-5) shot just 3- of-14 from behind the arc in their fifth loss in six games.

Ryan Boatright paced Connecticut with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Leading scorer Jeremy Lamb was held to seven points, 11 below his season average.

Lamb was held scoreless in the first half, and Connecticut trailed 29-24 at the break.

Louisville extended its lead with a 9-1 run to start the second half, capped by Dieng's reverse slam 2 1/2 minutes in.

The Cardinals held a 44-32 edge midway through and broke it open with a 16-2 run that Kuric highlighted with a tomahawk dunk in transition.

Dieng's slam off a steal in the backcourt ended the surge for a 26-point cushion, and Louisville coasted over the final seven minutes.

Game Notes

Louisville improved to 15-2 at KFC Yum! Center...Smith hit 4-of-6 from three- point range...Dieng also had six steals...George Blaney served as Connecticut's head coach once again due to Jim Calhoun's health concerns...Shabazz Napier, who came in averaging 13.3 points per game, shot 2- of-9 and had five points for the Huskies.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.