By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

UC coach Bob Huggins saw his Bearcats force only 13 turnovers, 10 below their game average. The loss ended the Bearcats' 13-game winning streak. Photos by Ernest Coleman/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

UC coach Bob Huggins contratulates Louisville coach Rick Pitino after Wednesday's game.

LOUISVILLE - Taquan Dean slowed his sprint to a stroll.

Already leading by 25 points with less than two minutes remaining against Cincinnati on Wednesday at Freedom Hall, Louisville's sophomore point guard pulled in the reins on his teammates.

Enough was enough.

"They have a reputation for kind of being the bullies on the block," Cardinals senior forward Luke Whitehead said. "We had to let them know that they can't come to our house and bully us.

"We ran our offense and didn't let them take us out of our offense with their pressure defense."

No. 5 Louisville beat sixth-ranked Cincinnati 93-66 - equaling the worst loss in the Bob Huggins era - in part because it undressed the Bearcats' defense.

Cincinnati entered the key conference game having held its opponents on average to less than 60 points a game.

The Bearcats also had forced an average of 23 turnovers a game and held opponents to 38 percent shooting from the field.

"You have to have great spacing, attack the basket and play intelligently to go against their pressure," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "The pressure is relentless."

But not unbeatable.

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The Cardinals used their speed to break Cincinnati's press and played better in transition.

They scored 12 points on fast breaks, turned the ball over just 13 times (a season low for Cincinnati) and shot 45.9 percent from the field during the game.

"Their whole philosophy is to close the windows down and give you very little space to maneuver," Pitino said. "We stayed in the middle. If you stay in the middle, you can attack and see the whole floor. If you head to the sidelines, you cut down your spacing."

The strategy is something the Cardinals, whether they knew it or not, had been working on since the start of the season.

Ten minutes of each practice had been spent on breaking Cincinnati's press defense and maintaining proper "spacing."

"We didn't know that until (Pitino) told us two days ago that he'd been preparing us for this game," Louisville sophomore forward Francisco Garcia said.

The win was Louisville's third this season against an opponent ranked in the top 10.

The Cardinals beat then-No. 1 Florida on Dec. 13 and then-No. 2 Kentucky on Dec. 27.

"They're a great team, and we know we'll have to face them again," Whitehead said, referring to the Feb. 21 game in Cincinnati. "So we've just got to stay level-headed and be ready."