Louisville's Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino knows what a championship team looks like. He has coached a pair of them. No. 12 Louisville offered Pitino a glimpse at its championship potential during an 88-56 win over Long Beach State Thursday at Louisville's KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals (3-0) used an 18-0 first-half run to blow the game open before closing out an 88-56 victory over the visiting 49ers (1-3).

"For the first 11 to 11:30, that was the best offense and defense I've seen in two years," Pitino said. "Not since the (2013) championship team have I seen passing like that, cutting like that, and then turning it around and playing defense like that."

Louisville hit eight straight shots during the 18-0 run, frustrating Long Beach into 10 straight misses.

"We weren't able to withstand that first blow to stay in the game and once we got comfortable, it was too late, the game is over," Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said.

Junior power forward Jaylen Johnson had 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Cardinals.

Sophomore forward Deng Adel and senior forward Mangok Mathiang added 11 points apiece for Louisville. Sophomore forward Ray Spalding scored 10 points. Evan Payne scored 15 points to lead Long Beach State (1-3).

Thursday's win was the first game of the Atlantis Tournament, which will continue next week on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Pitino said the run early in the first half was exactly what he wants to see from his team as they prepare to travel to Atlantis.

"Just to let them, somehow, watch the first 11 minutes and 30 seconds and say, that's great basketball on both ends of the floor and the more you share the basketball, the more you score," Pitino said. "I think at one point we were shooting 80 percent and the other team was shooting a very low percentage. Just bottling that 11:30 -probably not going to see that too often- those types of percentages, but just to show them what passing can do for a team."

Down by 22 points less than nine minutes into the game, the 49ers seemed to loosen up, scoring 13 of the next 19 points to cut Louisville's lead to 36-21 with just over six minutes left before the half.

The Cardinals held a 42-27 lead at halftime. Johnson had 10 points and seven rebounds in the first half. The 49ers ended the first half shooting 29.4 percent from the field.

"You come on these road trips to try to put your kids in adversity to get them better and I don't feel like today we handled it any better than Tuesday (vs. UNC)," Monson said. "But with that being said, for us we found out at lot about ourselves. We are not as good as we need to be and these teams are very good. Louisville is going to get a lot of people disrupted and uncomfortable and they certainly did that to us today."

Up 47-30 after the first three minutes of the second half, Louisville got an emphatic dunk from junior center Anas Mahmoud that sparked a run. A 3-pointer by senior guard David Levitch, a pair of jumpers by Adel, a dunk Spalding and a three-point play by Mathiang put Louisville up 61-33 with just under 14 minutes left.

The Cardinals never led by fewer than 20 points the rest of the game, extending the lead to 30 points at 74-44 with 6:29 left in the game.

Pitino was asked if he is pleased with where his team stands heading into next week's trip to the Bahamas.

"At 3-0 winning by 30 points? Yes, I do," Pitino said with a smirk. "Sometimes its fool's gold, but when you see 45 deflections and you see the way they're going after the ball sometimes. But Atlantis is going to be a different situation. This is going to be a test for all of us because these teams can really play."

"All the blowout games are done now, and we are going to face good top-tier teams and the Bahamas will be a show of what we can," Johnson said.

NOTES: Junior F Jaylen Johnson recorded his second double-double in Louisville's first three games with 14 points and 11 rebounds. He has 46 points and 34 rebounds in three games. ... Louisville coach Rick Pitino is just two wins away from 750 career wins and six wins away from 400 wins at Louisville. ... Long Beach State is in the midst of a nine-game road swing which includes games against Wichita State, North Carolina and Louisville. The 49ers will travel over 23,000 miles during the course of their non-conference slate.