Chucky Hepburn Explodes, Scores Career-High 37 Points in Win vs. Pitt

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Before the Louisville men's basketball program even touched the floor for their Saturday matchup against Pitt, it was already big game for Chucky Hepburn.

The Cardinals' star point guard had several people in town to watch him and his team against the Panthers. This included one of his best friends, his girlfriend, as well as her family. Additionally, it so happened to be his girlfriend's birthday. To say Hepburn was motivated to perform well would be an understatement.

"I just was locked in at night. We knew that we had to put on my show tonight," he said.

And put on a show he did.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound guard not only helped guide Louisville to a 79-68 win over Pitt, he wound up having career night worthy of the UofL record books. He finished the evening with a whopping 37 points, going 9-of-11 from the field and 13-of-17 from the free throw line. It tied for the seventh-most points in a game by a Cardinal, and it was the most since Jordan Nwora also had 37 on Jan. 29, 2020 at Boston College.

This included a perfect 6-of-6 on three-attempts, all of which came during a 4:06 span in the closing minutes of the first half. Four of them came in just a 117 second period, helping Louisville get on the right side of momentum.

"Chucky had a game that he's going to tell his grandchildren about," head coach Pat Kelsey said. :That stretch of four minutes before half was as amazing of a point guard play. It kind of looked like Steph Curry out there. Even the one after the whistle, he kind of threw up and it went in.

"I played basketball my whole life, and I've never been in a zone like that. I struggled to score in an empty gym. And they say when the basket looks like the ocean, it's really fun to play that way. And I don't know what that's like, but Chucky was feeling it that way tonight."

Hepburn's six first half threes tied Taquan Dean's Louisville record for most in a first half, and it tied for the most made threes without a miss in any half by a D1 player this season. It helped give him 24 first half points, which is the most by an ACC player this season.

After reaching heat check levels usually only seen by Steph Curry, one could have assumed that Hepburn was going to continue on this torrent pace in the second half. Instead, he attempted (and made) just two field goals, neither of which were threes, doing most of his damage in this period at the free throw line.

Sure, Pitt made some adjustments to contain him and his three-point capabilities. But most of this was Hepburn advertently directing the scoring flow to his teammates, knowing that the Panthers were going to key in on him.

For example, Hepburn forced a steal in the final 30 seconds, and in turn had a breakaway run at the rim. But instead of continuing to inflate his scoring, he lobbed the ball to a trailing J'Vonne Hadley, who proceeded to dunk it.

This was one of a handful of instances where Hepburn diverted the attention to his teammates, helping Louisville secure the victory during a tight second half.

"You watch that game tonight, you tell me he's not one of the top 10 point guards in the United States of America," Kelsey said. "He's special. He's special. We have a special group. It's his makeup. You talked about his selflessness like he could have made that last layup and had 39 [points] and he gave it to J’Vonne [Hadley].

"We drew something up for [Hepburn] coming out of half, because he had like, a million points. He goes, ‘Man, they're going to be draped all over me, put [Terrence Edwards Jr.] in that position. [Pitt’s defense will] follow me off the exit screen or open up James for the for the lob.’ That's special, you know, and we got a group of guys like that. They’re so much fun to coach. They're about winning. They're not about their accolades or statistics, and that's what makes them great.”

With 29 games now in the books, Hepburn is careening towards a First-Team All-ACC nod, and potentially more. He's averaging 16.3 points, 5.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game, while shooting 45.2/36.0/84.8.

"My teammates did a great job finding me, creating a shot for me to get it open," Hepburn said. "As soon as I saw a couple go in, the rim just feels like it's getting more open. It just feels like the ocean at that point, and I was just throwing it up there.

"Like I said, my teammates did a great job finding me, creating shots for me. A lot of this is on them. They were able to free me up for some shots, and I was able to knock them down."

(Photo of Chucky Hepburn: Jamie Rhodes - Imagn Images)

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