Northern Kentucky University Athletics

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rakeem Buckles and Gorgui Dieng each recorded double-doubles Sunday afternoon to lead the University of Louisville to an 83-66 win against Northern Kentucky University in an exhibition basketball game.

Buckles finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Cardinals, who played their first game inside the KFC Yum! Center in front of a crowd of 18,869. It marked the largest gathering to ever watch an NKU sporting event in person.

Prior to Sunday, the largest crowd to watch NKU occurred in Rupp Arena on Nov. 3, 2004, when 18,824 watched the University of Kentucky post a 91-73 win against the Norse in an exhibition game.

Dieng added 14 points and 11 rebounds for Louisville, which won the rebounding battle by a 55-26 margin. The Cardinals limited NKU to just 24.2 percent shooting from the field in the first half to build a 46-25 lead and held off a Norse rally to secure the victory.

Malcolm Eleby scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds to lead NKU. Eleby, a transfer from St. Bonaventure, also dished out four assists and had two steals. Jon Van Hoose scored 12 points – all on 3-pointers in the second half – to key an NKU comeback that sliced the Louisville lead to 59-50 with 6:09 remaining in the game.

Buckles then hit a pair of free throws to extend the Louisville lead to 61-50, and Terrence Jennings followed with a dunk to give the Cardinals a 63-50 edge.

“We did a great job of getting back into the game in the second half, but Louisville made a couple of big plays to push the lead back to double digits,” NKU head coach Dave Bezold said. “I'm pleased with the effort and how hard the guys played, and what an awesome arena this is. The opportunity to come down here and play in this facility is absolutely amazing - especially to be the first ones. And the storied program that Louisville is, it's time that they were rewarded and have this special place to play in."

Two years ago, Louisville visited NKU for the first college basketball game inside The Bank of Kentucky Center.

Chris Knight and Josh Tabb each finished with eight points for NKU, which shot 36.5 percent from the field. The Norse finished 9-for-27 from 3-point range after going 2-for-17 from long range in the first half.

Preston Knowles added 11 points for Louisville, which shot 48.4 percent from the field.

NKU concludes its exhibition schedule Tuesday with a 7 p.m. game at Xavier.