Louisville hosts North Carolina, aims to break home slide

North Carolina Tar Heels (11-6, 3-3 ACC) at Louisville Cardinals (2-15, 0-6 ACC)

Louisville, Kentucky; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST

LINE: Louisville -12.5; over/under is 146

BOTTOM LINE: Louisville hosts North Carolina looking to end its three-game home skid.

The Cardinals have gone 2-8 at home. Louisville is 1-13 against opponents with a winning record.

The Tar Heels are 3-3 against ACC opponents. North Carolina ranks sixth in college basketball with 27.7 defensive rebounds per game led by Armando Bacot averaging 6.2.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: El Ellis is averaging 17.5 points and 4.6 assists for the Cardinals. Mike James is averaging 9.2 points over the last 10 games for Louisville.

Caleb Love is averaging 16.6 points and 3.5 assists for the Tar Heels. Bacot is averaging 16.6 points and 9.9 rebounds while shooting 56.7% over the past 10 games for North Carolina.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 2-8, averaging 66.6 points, 30.7 rebounds, 10.1 assists, 5.8 steals and 2.9 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 76.3 points per game.

Tar Heels: 6-4, averaging 78.2 points, 36.7 rebounds, 13.7 assists, 6.2 steals and 3.5 blocks per game while shooting 45.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.