LOUISVILLE, Ky. –– Louisville scored 24 first-half points following Navy turnovers to build a lead it would not relinquish in a 77-60 victory by the Cardinals (2-1) over the Midshipmen (1-2), Monday night at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early 11-4 lead, with seven of those points coming after the Mids had turned the ball over.  The margin would grow to as many as 14 points at 29-15 with 10:27 remaining before halftime.

Navy was able to trim the deficit down to six points at 32-26 following a three-point field goal by John Carter Jr. (Sr., Spring Hill, Tenn.) with 7:25 left in the half.  Louisville responded with a 10-0 run to build a 42-26 advantage with 3:34 remaining before intermission.  The Cardinals would go into the break holding a 45-33 cushion.

Navy shot a more than respectable 56 percent from the field (14-25) in the first 20 minutes of play, but Louisville connected on 59 percent (17-29) of its attempts from the floor.  The Mids committed 14 turnovers while forcing six, which enabled the Cardinals to hold a 24-6 advantage in points scored after turnovers.

"You can't turn the ball over in the first half the way we turned it over," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis.  "I think they scored 20-plus points off our turnovers.  You have to take better care of the basketball.  We let them speed us up a little bit and we played a little faster in the half court than we like to, but they're long and they're athletic and they got their hands on some balls."

The margin remained 12 points at 52-40 in the early part of the second half.  Louisville then scored on six of its next seven possessions to go on a 15-4 run to open up a 67-44 lead with 11 minutes still to play.  The closest Navy could winnow the deficit to over the remainder of the game was 15.

Louisville tallied 30 points following Navy's 19 turnovers.  The Mids forced the Cardinals into only three fewer turnovers (19), but were not as opportunistic with their chances as they scored just 10 points after those turnovers.  Louisville recorded 14 steals to just six for Navy.

"The difference is points off turnovers," said DeChellis.  "I think it was 30 to 10; there's the game. I thought we battled, I thought we did some good things, but you can't turn the ball over that way.  We have to try to get a little better at taking care of the ball.  I think they (Louisville) are a good team; they have the pieces to work with, they're athletic, they're long, they have some guys who can shoot the basketball.  Their athleticism was a factor in this thing, they were pretty quick with the ball, and they run pretty well, and we had a hard time keeping up with them."

Navy ended the game was six more field goal attempts than Louisville (56-50), but made four fewer baskets (28-24).  The Cardinals also made 10 three-point field goals (on 24 attempts) to just three for the Mids (on 21 attempts).  Louisville would shoot 56 percent from the field for the game and hold Navy to a mark of 42.9 percent.

The Mids did well on the glass as they held advantages of 12-4 on the offensive boards and a 32-27 lead in all.

Carter led Navy with 15 points and Daniel Deaver (Jr., Fairfax, Va.) totaled 12 points and a game-high seven rebounds.

Navy will play a pair of games at Furman this weekend.  The Mids will first play Radford on Saturday before facing the weekend-host Paladins –– who beat Louisville Friday –– on Sunday.