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Bears Seek Upset Of 20th-Ranked Cardinals

POSTED: 10:48 am EST November 22, 2009

(Sports Network) - A pair of undefeated teams meet in the Bluegrass State on Sunday afternoon, as the Morgan State Bears try to upset the 20th-ranked Louisville Cardinals.

Morgan State, which won the 2009 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference championship and is the favorite to repeat this year, took care of Albany (69-65), UMBC (72-57) and East Tennessee State (72-61) to streak out to a 3-0 start -- its first since 1978. The Bears now turn their attention to a pair of top-notch teams in Louisville and Arkansas, and they will play one other team currently ranked in the Top-25 when they visit Minnesota on December 8th.

Rick Pitino's Louisville Cardinals have won both of their early-season games, whipping Arkansas in St. Louis last week (96-66), and then knocking off East Tennessee State yesterday (69-56). Louisville, which despite lacking a true superstar, is expected to challenge for the Big East Conference crown, and the Cards likely won't be seriously tested until visiting Kentucky in early January.

Louisville won the only previous meeting between these two teams, thrashing the Bears in a 95-47 final back on December 30, 1998.

Morgan State can boast of having one of the most explosive scorers in the nation after the first handful of games, as Reggie Holmes is averaging 25.3 ppg on the strength of his 41.7 percent three-point shooting and 91.7 percent accuracy at the free-throw line. His next closest teammate, Kevin Thompson, is netting just 9.7 ppg, but he is the club's top rebounder with 7.0 rpg and is a 52.4 percent shooter from the field overall. As a team, the Bears are scoring 71 ppg while allowing 61 ppg, and while they are shooting a mere 40.5 percent from the floor, foes are converting their field goals just 35.3 percent of the time, which includes a dreadful 14-of-54 performance from three-point range. Holmes poured in a career-high 30 points to lead the Bears to their double- digit win over East Tennessee State the last time out, and the team as a whole shot 50.0 percent from the field while holding the Bucs to just 29.3 percent. Stokes was the only other MSU player to hit for double figures on the night, as he went a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor to finish with 12 points.

The Cardinals were fortunate they didn't play a tougher opponent on Saturday, as they shot just 36.4 percent from the field and knocked down a mere 6-of-30 three-point attempts, yet still managed to get past East Tennessee State by a comfortable margin. Edgar Sosa scored 13 of his team-high 16 points in the first half, and Samardo Samuels was the only other Cardinal to reach double figures, tallying 14 points while also collecting 11 rebounds. Tough defense helped keep the Bucs at bay, as ETSU was held to 33.3 percent field goal efficiency and the team committed 20 turnovers. It's only been two games, but five UofL players are averaging double digits in the scoring column, led by Samuels and his 15.5 ppg. Sosa, who needs just 42 points to reach 1,000 for his career, is next with 14.0 ppg, while Reginald Delk (11.5 ppg), Jerry Smith (10.0 ppg) and Preston Knowles (10.0 ppg) round out the productive quintet. Smith is also on the cusp of joining the 1,000-point club, needing just 34 points to do so.

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Scoreboard

Wed, Dec. 30FINAL
South Florida (10-2) 52
Louisville (9-3) 73
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