LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Freshman point guard Darius Washington scored 25 points and Memphis coach John Calipari earned his 300th victory in the Tigers' 85-68 win over No. 9 Louisville on Wednesday night.
Rodney Carney added 24 points and Anthony Rice had 15 - all in the second half - for the Tigers (14-10, 7-3 Conference USA), who snapped the Cardinals' nine-game winning streak and handed Louisville its worst home loss in four seasons under coach Rick Pitino.
Taquan Dean and Ellis Myles each scored 17 points for Louisville (20-4, 8-2), which was outrebounded 41-30 and shot a season-low 33 percent (19-of-58).
The Cardinals rank second in the nation in field goal percentage defense, but it was the Tigers' defense that took control early. It triggered a 16-5 opening run by holding the Cardinals without a point for more than 9 minutes.
Louisville, averaging 85 points per game, missed seven straight shots and committed five turnovers during the drought. At the end of one sloppy possession, Myles threw up just the ninth 3-point attempt of his career, missing it badly.
The Tigers, meanwhile, committed only one turnover in the first 12 minutes after coughing up a season-high 26 in a loss to Houston last Saturday.
Myles made two free throws with 7:47 left in the half to end Louisville's scoreless stretch. He had a layup and zipped an assist to Francisco Garcia to trim Memphis' lead to 16-11.
Carney then hit two 3-pointers during a 10-2 run that muted the capacity crowd. When Carney wasn't hitting from the outside, Washington was gliding through Louisville's full-court pressure for layups.
Carney and Washington scored 28 of the Tigers' 34 first-half points. The Cardinals mustered only 22 first-half points after missing 15 of 20 shots.
Louisville continued to sputter in the second half, missing 10 of its first 13 shots.
Anthony Rice hit a 3-pointer with 16:49 left to launch a decisive 16-2 run. Garcia hit a free throw with 11:05 left, but Rice made a 3-pointer to push the lead to 57-31, the Tigers' biggest to that point.
Dean hit a 3-pointer with 7 minutes left as Louisville's defense finally started generating turnovers and easy baskets.
A layup by Myles with 5:12 to go trimmed Louisville's deficit to 66-49, but Rice made four free throws over the next minute as the Tigers pushed the lead back over 20.
Louisville had a 10-game home-court winning streak snapped and matched its worst defeat at Freedom Hall since a 74-57 loss to UAB on Feb. 28, 2001, former coach Denny Crum's final regular-season home game.
Garcia, Louisville's leading scorer, went 1-for-8 and scored seven points.
