Cards Fall Short vs. Virginia in Regular Season Finale

Louisville is unable to repeat their earlier success against Virginia, as they fall 57-54 to the Cavaliers in the last game of the regular season.

Heading into Saturday's game with a share of the ACC regular season title on the line, the No. 10 Louisville Cardinals could not complete the season sweep over the No. 22 Virginia Cavaliers, falling 57-54 at John Paul Jones Arena. The loss locks them into the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament.

Louisville was streaky on offense throughout most of the game, as they finished just 37.3% from the field on 19-for-51 shooting. Conversely, UVA was not much better on 41.3% shooting, but had three double-digit scorers in Kihei Clark, Mamadi Diakite and Jay Huff.

As the game opened up, the Cards (24-7, 15-5 ACC) had a bit of momentum as they possessed a 16-8 lead at the 11:11 mark of the first half. Despite going up against one of the better frontcourts in the ACC without much help from the injured Malik Williams, redshirt senior Steven Enoch found a groove early. He was 5-for-6 from the field in the first 20 minutes, with all of his 11 points coming in the first half.

But as the half wound down, the Cards started to lose focus and get sloppy. The Cavaliers closed the first half on an 18-4 run and held Louisville scoreless over the 3:22 leading to halftime. The main catalyst for this momentum swing came when head coach Chris Mack was called for a technical foul at the 5:51 mark for arguing what he believed should be a lane violation by UVA’s Mamadi Diakite.

This momentum carried into the second half, as the Cards missed their first five shots to start the half and had more turnovers than made field goals through the second media timeout. Over the course of the game, Louisville turned it over 13 times allowing UVA to have 16 points off turnovers.

But the Cards were not going down without a fight. Down 45-32 at the 12:45 mark, the Cards then mounted a 19-6 run to tie the game, with 10 of the points in that run coming from Jordan Nwora. The junior forward finished with a team-high 18 points on just 6-for-17 shooting but 4-for-9 from beyond the arc.

However, the comeback effort was all for naught as the Cards completely faltered down the stretch. Once the game was tied at 51 with 5:12 to go, they hit just one of their final eight shots. While the Cards played stout defense down the stretch, the offensive ineptitude in the closing minutes allowed the Hoos to go on the difference-making 6-3 run.

Louisville will now head to Greensboro, N.C., for the ACC Tournament. Their first game will tip at 9:00pm EST on Thursday, Mar. 12 with the opponent to be determined.

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