Kansas managed to hold Flory Bidunga, the former Jayhawk and top-ranked transfer-portal acquisition, to five points and three rebounds on Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse. But KU turned out to have much bigger problems in its first exhibition against a power-conference opponent.
No. 11 Louisville hit eight of its first 11 3-pointers in the early stages of the second half, jumped ahead by a dozen points after trailing at halftime and held on late for an 89-83 victory over the 17th-ranked Jayhawks.
Tre White scored 25 points for KU, a higher total than at any point last season. Melvin Council Jr. added 20, and Tyran Stokes managed 15 more primarily by getting to the free-throw line.
Louisville guard Jackson Shelstad put up 23 points, including four 3s and the game-sealing free throws in the final minute after Stokes missed on a drive to the rim with the Jayhawks down 86-83. Three other Cardinals reached double figures, headlined by Louisville’s highly touted center Obinna Ekezie Jr., who had 16 on the bench, largely due to four 3s of his own.
The result snapped a streak of 58 straight exhibition wins for KU at Allen Fieldhouse.
Louisville started slow offensively before Karter Knox came off the bench to knock down a right-corner 3 and tie the game. The Jayhawks responded with a 7-0 run; the Cardinals struggled to counter Paul Mbiya’s length inside, and White deflected a pass from Seth Trimble to set up a wide-open transition dunk for Council that prompted a timeout.
Bidunga scored his first bucket at the 12:39 mark after backing down Keanu Dawes for a hook shot. That cut Louisville’s deficit to 13-8, but Reeves rattled one in against Bidunga soon afterward.
Ekezie supplied five points out of the under-12 timeout and helped the Cardinals to find their stride and very quickly tie the game at 17.
The Jayhawks held a narrow lead down the stretch in the first half and put some key Cardinals, including Bidunga, in foul trouble. But it missed opportunities to extend it when Mbiya came up empty on a series of free throws.
Council knocked down a couple of 3-pointers in rapid succession, but the Jayhawks stagnated for several minutes afterward, and Louisville took its first lead on a 3-pointer by Jackson Shelstad with less than two minutes remaining in the half. But thanks in large part to a series of fouls drawn by Stokes, who went 7-for-10 on free throws in the first half, KU took a 37-36 edge into the break.
No individual player for Louisville had more than seven points at halftime, while recently returned Jayhawks White and Council had 12 and 11, respectively.
The Cardinals jumped ahead early in the second half by exclusively shooting from beyond the arc and making three of four 3-pointers, two by Adrian Wooley and one by Alvaro Folgueiras.
Shelstad continued to add on for Louisville, while Stokes missed two attempts from deep. Shelstad was responsible for eight straight points on his own, and two free throws by De’Shayne Montgomery boosted the Cardinals’ lead to 11.
Council chipped in a putback off his own miss and a three-point play, and Louisville coach Pat Kelsey had to call timeout after an alley-oop from Stokes to Mbiya made it 63-56.
Mbiya finished another lob from Council to get it to 67-62 with just under nine minutes left, but Ekezie immediately knocked down his third and fourth 3-pointers.
Trailing 75-68 with less than six minutes left, White hit a corner 3, only for Shelstad to respond with a deep step-back 3 from the left wing moments later.
With 2:16 to go, Stokes swiped the ball from Shelstad and took it all the way for a transition layup, cutting the deficit to 82-80.
However, Dennis Parker Jr. and Stokes fouled Trimble on each of the next two possessions. Trimble made his first three free throws, and Dawes went just 1-for-2 at the line the next time down.
Bidunga missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Dawes dunked to make it 85-83, but Council got called for an immediate (and unintentional) foul against Trimble. Trimble went 1-for-2 with 42 seconds left.
Stokes had a contested layup at the rim rattle out on the next possession, Shelstad made two free throws, and a turnover by White sealed the result.
KU will host Duke for its final exhibition at noon on Sunday.
