Good time for Ray Spalding’s game to start coming around. One week before the grudge game against Kentucky, 11 days before the first ACC game against Pittsburgh. Taking his game up a notch or two, several notches, in fact.
Best game of his career for the 6-foot-10 junior, leading the University of Louisville to a 74-56 win over a good Grand Canyon before a crowd of 16,841 at the KFC Yum! Center. Topping all scorers with 21 points, grabbing 16 rebounds, making three steals, blocking two shots and even getting an assist.
Possibly dawning on Spalding what kind of effort is going to be required if this season is going to be a decent one for the Cardinals. With all of the presumed gimmes in the rear view mirror, the road ahead is going to be a bumpy one.
Another slow start for UofL, falling behind 6-0 at the start, and trailing 11-3 at the 12:49 mark in the first half. These shaky first halves all too familiar this season, even during their best performances. Louisville would outscore Grand Canyon over an eight-minute stretch in the second half to turn a 38-37 lead into a 19-point bulge with eight minutes remaining.
“I don’t have an answer (for the slow starts),” said Coach David Padgett. “I just glad it’s not the other way around. I’m glad we don’t get off to a great start and, all of a sudden, we’re horrible in the second half.”
Padgett gave credit to Spalding for an exceptional performance in the second half when he scored 13 of his 21 points and 11 of those 16 rebounds. Louisville had entered the game ranked 257th in the nation in defensive rebound efficiency.
“He was aggressive and our guys were doing a good job of getting the ball to him,” said the coach. “Most impressive to me were 10 defensive rebounds. He basically took it upon himself to cure our woes at least for this game.”
“The way I adjusted today was really well,” said Spalding. “I handled myself better than (Albany) with the stupid fouls.” He had two fouls in the first half in the previous game, four for the game and saw only 16 minutes of action.
For UofL to be competitive, Spalding has to stay out of foul trouble, hit the boards and make good shots. He did all three of those things Saturday, improving Louisville’s record to 10-2 for the season.