Freshman Chane Behanan scored a career-high 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting and added eight rebounds to lead No. 25 Louisville past visiting Rutgers, 78-66, on Saturday.

Chris Smith chipped in eight points, 13 rebounds, six assists and three steals and Gorgui Dieng blocked seven shots for the Cardinals (18-5, 6-4 Big East), who have won four straight to pull into a tie for fifth place in the Big East.

Louisville faces its toughest stretch beginning Monday, with Connecticut, West Virginia and Syracuse over the next nine days.

The Scarlet Knights (12-12, 4-7) had pulled to within 53-50 on Eli Carter’s 3-pointer with 13:04 left when the Cardinals offense woke up. Behanan grabbed an offensive rebound and dunked to spark a 12-0 burst over the next five minutes.

Peyton Siva scored five points during the run and Kyle Kuric capped it with a 3-pointer, bringing the lead to 65-50 with 8:20 to play.

Rutgers would cut it back to single digits, 73-64, on a 3-pointer with 1:30 remaining but Chris and Russ Smith combined to hit five free throws in the final 1:17 to close it out.

Carter scored 24 points to lead the Scarlet Knights.