Louisville and Creighton square off in opening round of NCAA Tournament

Creighton Bluejays (24-10, 17-6 Big East) vs. Louisville Cardinals (27-7, 20-3 ACC)

Lexington, Kentucky; Thursday, 12:15 p.m. EDT

BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Cardinals -2.5; over/under is 145.5

BOTTOM LINE: No. 10 Louisville and Creighton square off in the NCAA Tournament opening round.

The Cardinals have gone 20-3 against ACC teams, with a 7-4 record in non-conference play. Louisville is seventh in the ACC with 14.0 assists per game led by Chucky Hepburn averaging 5.8.

The Bluejays’ record in Big East action is 17-6. Creighton ranks seventh in the Big East shooting 33.9% from 3-point range.

Louisville makes 45.4% of its shots from the field this season, which is 4.2 percentage points higher than Creighton has allowed to its opponents (41.2%). Creighton has shot at a 47.5% clip from the field this season, 5.0 percentage points above the 42.5% shooting opponents of Louisville have averaged.

TOP PERFORMERS: Terrence Edwards is scoring 16.6 points per game with 4.1 rebounds and 2.6 assists for the Cardinals. Hepburn is averaging 19.0 points and 3.7 rebounds while shooting 45.9% over the last 10 games.

Ryan Kalkbrenner is shooting 65.5% and averaging 19.4 points for the Bluejays. Steven Ashworth is averaging 3.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Cardinals: 9-1, averaging 77.1 points, 31.5 rebounds, 13.1 assists, 6.1 steals and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 48.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 67.6 points per game.

Bluejays: 6-4, averaging 74.3 points, 35.3 rebounds, 17.8 assists, 3.4 steals and 3.7 blocks per game while shooting 46.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.6 points.

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