Flory Bidunga Scores 16 in Debut as No. 11 Louisville Holds Off Chattanooga 84-70

For 20 minutes on Monday night, Louisville looked like a team that belongs in every conversation about March. For the next 20, it looked like a team that still has homework. The No. 11 Cardinals rode a ferocious first half to an 84-70 season-opening win over Chattanooga at the KFC Yum! Center, then spent the second half watching a 25-point cushion shrink to 14.

Flory Bidunga led the way in his Louisville debut with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, nine rebounds and three steals. Adrian Wooley added 15 points and four steals, Jackson Shelstad and Seth Trimble scored 13 apiece, and Alvaro Folgueiras chipped in 10. Karter Knox grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to go with nine points.

It was Louisville's fourth straight season-opening win and the third under Pat Kelsey. It was also, by the coach's own account, only half a performance.

A First Half Built for Highlights

Louisville missed its first shot of the season and then made its next seven. That burst set the tone for a 17-5 start in the opening four and a half minutes, with Bidunga's presence around the rim announcing exactly why the Kansas transfer, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, was such a prized pickup. Shelstad hit early 3s, Wooley attacked downhill, and Chattanooga looked a step slow everywhere.

A 10-0 run between the 11:35 and 9:43 marks pushed the lead to 37-14, and the KFC Yum! Center crowd settled in for what looked like a long, comfortable night. Chattanooga punched back with eight straight points to make it 37-22, but Louisville answered with a 7-0 spurt of its own as Shelstad, Trimble, Wooley and Knox all got involved.

The numbers from the opening half were absurd. Louisville shot 21-of-37 (56.8 percent) from the field and 8-of-19 from 3. The Cardinals threw down six dunks, scored 26 points in the paint and turned Chattanooga mistakes into 11 points. They won the glass 21-11 and allowed the Mocs just one offensive rebound. Louisville led 55-30 with under two minutes left in the half and took a 56-35 lead to the locker room. Those 56 points were the program's most in a half since a 62-point second half against NC State last February.

Shelstad did most of his damage early, scoring 11 of his 13 points before the break. Bidunga had eight points in the half despite picking up three fouls, which kept him from completely taking over.

Then the Rim Shrank

Whatever Louisville had in the first half stayed in the locker room. The Cardinals shot 9-of-31 (29 percent) after halftime and went 1-of-16 from 3, missing their first 12 attempts from deep before finally connecting. At the line, the struggles continued. Louisville finished 15-of-26 (57.7 percent) on free throws for the night.

Chattanooga, meanwhile, kept chipping. Louisville still led 67-43 with about 14 minutes to play, but the Mocs outscored the Cardinals 27-17 the rest of the way. A 15-6 run cut the deficit to 80-65 with 3:47 left. Louisville went 4:13 without a field goal in the closing stretch and made just two of its last 11 shots. Newcomer Yssam Moungalla capped it with a 3 at the final buzzer to make it 84-70, and Chattanooga won the second half 35-28.

Kelsey did not sugarcoat it afterward. "We played really well in the first half and played very poorly in the second half," the Louisville coach said, before pointing to the stretch that stung most: "We were up 25 with a minute left in the first half and they outscored us by 11 from that point out, maybe more."

The bottom line from Kelsey was short. "We have to be better than that."

There was one more concern late. Knox limped off the floor in the final minute after a hard fall, and his status is worth watching heading into Saturday.

The Bidunga Effect

Even with the sloppy finish, Louisville's new big man showed why he might be the most important addition in the ACC. Bidunga was efficient and active on both ends, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds (four offensive) and three steals in 27 minutes. Louisville dominated the paint 42-26 for the game, and much of that started with Bidunga drawing attention inside.

Wooley's stat line deserves its own spotlight. Fifteen points on 7-of-14 shooting is nice. Four steals, part of a team total of 12, is the kind of defensive disruption that turns Kelsey's pressure system into a scoring engine. Louisville forced 18 Chattanooga turnovers and converted them into 20 points.

Knox was the quiet star on the glass, pulling down a career-high 11 rebounds. Trimble scored nine of his 13 in the second half, giving Louisville a steadier hand after the break. Shelstad, for all his early shot-making, finished 3-of-12 from deep.

Louisville also played without forward De'Shayne Montgomery, a transfer from Dayton who is expected to miss four to six weeks with a foot injury. That absence thins out a frontcourt rotation that will need depth once the schedule stiffens.

Chattanooga Earned Some Respect

The Mocs deserve credit, and Kelsey gave it, praising Dan Earl's program as "very well coached." Chattanooga was opening its 50th season as a Division I program against its highest-ranked season-opening opponent since a trip to No. 6 Kansas in 2003. Ten players made their Division I debuts, seven of them in their first collegiate games.

Zach Bleshoy was terrific in his debut, scoring 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting with seven rebounds and two steals. Yonatan Levy matched him with 14 points and six rebounds, hitting three 3s, though five turnovers took some shine off it. Lenny Anigbata added 12 points and Christian Matos scored 10 off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting. Kobe McDowell-White ran the offense with seven assists.

The shooting was there all night. Chattanooga made 12 of 33 from 3 (36.4 percent), including 7-of-15 in the first half. The killer was ball security: 18 turnovers, a problem Earl said was at its worst in the first half.

Earl pinpointed the difference between halves. "I thought we moved the ball and took care of it so much better in the second half," the Mocs coach said. "I'm really proud of their fight and we have a lot to work on, but that was encouraging, especially the fight."

That fight carried into Thursday, when Chattanooga pushed Penn State before falling 97-93 on the road. A program that beat Louisville in this building in 2023 is not going to be intimidated by the setting.

What It Means

For Louisville, the opener was a tale of two teams wearing the same jersey. The first-half version can beat anybody in the country, with length, pressure and enough shooters to punish help defense. The second-half version fired away from deep without much success and leaked confidence at the line.

Early-season games are supposed to expose flaws, and this one did. The good news is that the formula is obvious. When Bidunga is involved and Wooley is creating chaos defensively, Louisville is dangerous. When the offense turns into a 3-point contest, it can go cold in a hurry.

The schedule gives Kelsey time to fix it. Louisville hosts Morehead State on Saturday, Nov. 7, at noon, with a trip to Memphis on Nov. 15 and a date with No. 19 Texas Tech on Nov. 24 still ahead this month. Those last two will tell us whether this group's first half was the real Louisville.

Full stats are in the official box score (opens in a new tab), and Louisville's game recap (opens in a new tab) and Chattanooga's recap (opens in a new tab) have more from both sides.

Sources: Louisville Athletics, Chattanooga Athletics, ESPN box score, Associated Press, Field Level Media, Louisville Cardinals On SI. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Louisville is 1-0. Chattanooga, after a promising Thursday at Penn State, is 0-2 and better than its record.

Photo: Mallory Peak/Louisville Athletics.