No. 6 Louisville 67, Cincinnati 51: Russ Smith scored 18 points as the host Cardinals pulled away in the second half to defeat the Bearcats and win their sixth straight game.

Peyton Siva bounced back from a scoreless game on Saturday with 11 points while Gorgui Dieng added 11 points and nine rebounds for Louisville (25-5, 13-4 Big East), which is a half-game behind conference-leading Georgetown. The Cardinals close out the regular season at home Saturday against No. 24 Notre Dame.

Cashmere Wright broke out of a long shooting slump with 15 points – shooting 6-for-11 from the field, including three 3-pointers – for Cincinnati (20-10, 8-9). Over the previous 10 games, Wright was connecting on 22.9 percent of his field-goal attempts, including only 19.7 percent beyond the arc.

Cincinnati trailed 35-31 at the break despite 12 first-half turnovers thanks mostly to six 3-pointers. But once the outside shots stopped falling, the mistake-prone Bearcats quickly fell behind after knotting the game at 37 with 15:58 remaining.

Louisville, which scored 23 points off a season-high Cincinnati 21 turnovers, limited the Bearcats to three free throws and two dunks from Cheikh Mbodj over the next 10:38, getting five straight points from Luke Hancock to ignite a 25-7 run that put the game away and gave Cardinals coach Rick Pitino his 300th victory at the school.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Louisville outscored Cincinnati 42-16 inside the paint. … Cincinnati’s Sean Kilpatrick – the fourth-leading scorer in the conference – scored 12 points, but shot 3-for-15 from the field, including 1-for-9 beyond the arc. … The Cardinals held their 19th opponent to less than 40 percent shooting (the Bearcats shot 35.3 percent) and 19th opponent to fewer than 60 points.