No. 14 Louisville steamrolls Cal for 8th straight win

Terrence Edwards Jr. hit seven 3-pointers and scored a game-high 35 points on Wednesday night as No. 14 Louisville stretched its winning streak to eight games with an 85-68 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over visiting Cal.

Edwards made 11 of 19 shots from the field as the Cardinals (24-6, 17-2 ACC) kept pace with Clemson in a tie for second place in the conference, one game behind Duke.

Chucky Hepburn shrugged off a slow start to finish with 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists for Louisville. J'Vonne Hadley added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals, who converted 63.6 percent of their field goals in the second half to finish at 52.9 percent for the night.

Jovan Blacksher Jr. scored 22 points on 7 of 14 shooting for the Golden Bears (13-17, 6-13), who experienced serious difficulties making shots. They connected on 20.6 percent of their shots in the first half and ended the game at 29.6 percent.

In winning for the 18th time in 19 games, Louisville led by as many as 24 early in the second half and never allowed its advantage to dip below 13 after halftime.

Most of the first half was a rock fight that saw Cal take a small lead and hold it for nearly seven minutes.

The Golden Bears led 19-16 at the 8:06 mark on a dunk by Mady Sissoko. It came after Hepburn blocked a dunk attempt by Cal's Spencer Mahoney.

At that point, Edwards hit consecutive 3-pointers and then fed Hadley for another trey that put Louisville ahead for good.

The Cardinals simply took off after that, finding the range as Noah Waterman and Hepburn added 3-pointers to turn a contentious battle for turf into a 41-26 lead at the break.

Cal went into halftime shooting only 7 of 34 from the field.

--Field Level Media