Memphis Erases 18-Point Hole, Routs No. 10 Louisville 98-78 as Jayden Reid and Tylik Weeks Score 24 Each

For the first 10 minutes on Sunday afternoon, Louisville looked every bit like a top 10 team on a business trip. The Cardinals were up 28-10 at FedExForum, Jackson Shelstad was splashing 3s, and the Tigers were turning the ball over and settling for tough looks. Then Memphis spent the next 32 minutes taking the game apart piece by piece, outscoring Louisville 88-50 the rest of the way and walking off with a 98-78 win over the No. 10 Cardinals.

Jayden Reid and Tylik Weeks each finished with 24 points, and both did most of the damage after halftime, 18 apiece in a second half Memphis won 57-26. Reid added 10 assists, five rebounds and four steals against just one turnover. Memphis improved to 3-1. Louisville fell to 2-1 and took its first loss of the season.

Louisville Owned the Opening 10 Minutes

The start went exactly the way Louisville drew it up. After Reid opened the scoring with a jumper, Alvaro Folgueiras answered with a layup and a 3, and Shelstad hit from deep off a Seth Trimble feed for an 8-2 lead. Louisville kept turning Memphis mistakes into transition chances. Trimble picked off a pass and finished an and-one for a 20-4 lead, Flory Bidunga threw down a dunk off a Karter Knox assist, and Shelstad buried another 3 at 12:18 to make it 28-10.

That was an 18-point lead and a 26-8 run from a 2-2 tie. For a team that came in scoring 95.5 points per game, it looked like the start of another track meet.

Memphis never folded, though. The Tigers chipped in at the free throw line, Julius Thedford hit a 3, and William Whorton gave them life around the rim with a putback, a dunk off a Reid pass and a layup. Louisville still went to the locker room up 52-41 after Brandin Cummings converted a four-point play and Adrian Wooley answered with a dunk. By halftime Shelstad had 14 points, and so did Folgueiras, who would not score again. Louisville made seven 3s before the break.

It would not make another one.

A 7-0 Start Changed the Temperature

Memphis needed exactly 2 minutes and 23 seconds after halftime to turn an 11-point deficit into a four-point game. Reid scored on a layup, Rihards Vavers hit a jumper and then a 3, and Louisville coach Pat Kelsey burned a timeout with the lead down to 52-48.

Wooley got a layup out of the timeout, but it barely slowed the Tigers. Weeks drilled a 3. Vavers hit another at 15:24 for a 56-55 lead, the first time Memphis had been in front since Reid's opening bucket. The next two minutes were a heavyweight exchange: Trimble scored, Weeks answered from deep, Wooley tied it at 59, and then Thedford stepped into a 3 at 14:11 that put Memphis ahead 62-59.

Memphis never trailed again.

The Turning Point: Reid Takes Over

Louisville hung around for a few more possessions. Trimble kept attacking the paint and cut it to 67-65 at 12:15. Then Reid took over. Reid hit a jumper through contact and converted the free throw for a 70-65 lead, pulled up for a 3 at 11:18, and Weeks followed with a jumper for a 75-65 cushion. Eight straight points, all in about a minute and a half.

Trimble scored twice more to get Louisville within 75-69 at 9:01, and that was the last field goal the Cardinals made for almost seven minutes. Memphis ripped off a 16-3 run from there. Weeks hit a jumper and a 3, Cummings knocked down a pull-up, and Vavers finished an and-one at 6:12 that was Folgueiras' fifth foul. Reid made four straight free throws, Weeks hit another jumper, and by the 2:28 mark it was 91-72.

The second-half splits are brutal. Memphis shot 20 of 27 (74.1%) after the break, 7 of 10 from 3 and 10 of 11 at the line. Louisville shot 11 of 34, went 0 for 15 from deep and made 4 of 10 free throws.

The Numbers That Tell It

For the game, Memphis shot 34 of 59 (57.6%) according to the official box score (opens in a new tab), 10 of 20 from 3 and 20 of 25 from the line. Louisville went 29 of 66 (43.9%), 7 of 29 from 3 and 13 of 23 at the stripe.

Louisville actually won the glass 34-33, grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and scored 16 points off turnovers to Memphis' 10. But the Tigers had nine steals to Louisville's five and blocked seven shots, three of them by Whorton, who also went 4 for 4 from the field in 20 minutes. Memphis had 16 assists on 34 makes, and Reid's 10 helpers came with just one turnover. The Tigers' bench also edged Louisville's 19-17, with Whorton and Cummings scoring eight each.

Thedford was the quiet third option: 16 points on 5 of 7 shooting, two 3s, five rebounds and two steals. Vavers chipped in 15 on 5 of 8 shooting with two blocks, and 11 of those points came after halftime.

Weeks, meanwhile, was nearly perfect from distance: 4 of 5 from 3, 8 of 15 overall and 4 of 5 at the line. Three of those 3s came after halftime, right when the game was flipping.

What It Means for Louisville

One road loss in November is no reason to panic, but this one comes with lessons. The Cardinals took 29 3s and made seven, all before halftime. When the shots stopped falling, there was no Plan B. Louisville scored only 11 field goals in the second half, and Trimble had 11 of the team's 26 points after the break.

Trimble finished with a team-high 16 on 6 of 15 shooting and crossed 1,000 career points along the way, a milestone the program celebrated on X during the game. Shelstad also scored 16, though only two came after halftime. Knox gave Louisville 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and Bidunga had seven points and nine rebounds but went 3 of 9 from the field and 1 of 3 at the line. Wooley handed out four assists but went 0 for 5 from 3.

Foul trouble also bit. Folgueiras, Louisville's most efficient scorer on the day at 4 of 6 from the field, was whistled for four fouls by the middle of the second half and fouled out with 6:12 left. That removed Louisville's best remaining floor spacer at the worst possible time.

The good news is the early schedule offers a quick reset. After rolling past Chattanooga and Morehead State at home, Louisville hosts Stetson on Nov. 19 before heading to Las Vegas for the Players Era event against Texas Tech on Nov. 24.

What It Means for Memphis

Memphis has now played three ranked teams in its first four games and beaten two of them. The Tigers took down No. 18 Iowa State 80-76 in Sioux Falls on opening night, edged VCU 89-88 at home, and then got hammered 105-81 at No. 22 Vanderbilt on Tuesday. Five days later, they put up 98 on a top 10 team.

The ceiling is obvious. Reid has now been the best player on the floor in two wins over ranked opponents, and Weeks gives Memphis a second creator who can get hot in a hurry. Penny Hardaway entered the day 22-11 against Power 4 opponents during his tenure, according to Memphis Athletics, and this one moves that mark to 23-11.

There is history here too. This was the 92nd meeting between the old conference rivals, and Louisville still leads the series 55-37. But Memphis improved to 24-16 against Louisville at home, according to the series numbers in the Memphis Athletics preview, and Sunday's win also flipped the script on last season's game, a 99-73 Louisville blowout in which the Cardinals made 18 3s. This time it was the Tigers raining shots in the second half.

Memphis hosts Evansville on Nov. 22 before heading to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis, where the Tigers open against Penn State on Nov. 25.

The Takeaway

The final margin says rout, but this was a game in two acts. Louisville played a near perfect opening 10 minutes and then went cold, never making a 3 after halftime. Memphis kept its composure, trusted its guards, and turned an 18-point hole into a 20-point win.

For Louisville, the first loss is a reminder that a high-volume 3-point offense needs a backup plan. For Memphis, it's the clearest proof yet that this group can beat anybody on its schedule when Reid and Weeks are both cooking.

Sources: Memphis Athletics box score, CBS Sports play-by-play, Memphis Athletics, Louisville Athletics. More men's college basketball coverage on Undrafted.

Photo Credit: Louisville Athletics (file photo).