Defense and Turnovers Doom Louisville in Rematch vs. SMU

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program entered their rematch vs. SMU with momentum squarely in their favor.

For starters, the Cardinals were riding a five-game winning streak. In their previous two games, they put together one of the most dominating performances in program history against NC State, then followed that up with a strong second half against Baylor.

Then with the Mustangs, who got UofL's five-game streak started with an 88-74 decision at the KFC Yum! Center on Jan. 31, they had split their four games leading up to the rematch. This included a heartbreaking 79-78 loss at Syracuse, which came on a game-losing layup in the final second.

However, Louisville's sky-high momentum came crashing back down Earth on Tuesday night. They were denied the regular season sweep over SMU, falling 95-85 at Moody Coliseum in Dallas.

For Louisville, the formula for the losing effort was fairly simple: a porous effort on the defensive end, along with a propensity to turn the ball over on the offensive end.

"I don't think we played with a lot of poise defensively," head coach Pat Kelsey said after the game. "Can't go on the road and allow a team to shoot 58 percent from the field, 60 something percent from two, 47 percent from three, and win a tough road game. They made a lot of tough shots. I think they were 21 for 33 for mid range, which is a very, very, very high percentage. Some of them were 'tip your cap' type shots, but when you let good scorers get in a rhythm like that, and they see it go in, then it becomes easy for them.

I thought we competed and played hard. Our rebounding numbers were very good, but the offensive end, we didn't play very efficient. We had 17 turnovers, which is uncharacteristic of our team. You can't defend like that, turn the ball over like that. That's a recipe for losing a conference game on the road."

Not only was SMU's 95 points the most that a Kelsey-led Louisville team has given up, the Mustangs' 58.5 shooting percentage from the field was also the worst in the two seasons under Kelsey's guidance. Watching the game in real time, it was easy to see why.

For almost the entire night, Louisville found themselves in mismatches with switching in their half court defense. This allowed guards Boopie Miller and Jarron Pierre Jr. to thrive, especially on drives to the rim. Pierre finished with a team-best 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting, while Miller added 23 points on 9-of-14 from the field.

Miller, Pierre and forward Corey Washington got going early, which allowed SMU to get very comfortable int he flow of their offense nearly from the jump. In fact, the Mustangs shot 21-of-35 from the field, or 60.0 percent, in the first half alone.

"We struggled to guard them one-on-one," Kelsey said. "They were hurting us off the bounce, getting to the rim, making tough shots, and then their confidence really started going. I thought early on the game, there wasn't a lot of bite, if you will, to our defense.

"I thought we regrouped and start playing with more activity (in the second half), deflecting the ball, making things harder for them. I thought their moving parts were faster than our moving parts defensively for the majority of the first half."

Louisville was able to keep pace with SMU's offense in the first half, shooting 18-of-34 with a 9-of-19 mark on threes before halftime. However, it took a step backwards in the second half primarily due to the amount of turnovers.

In the second half alone, Louisville coughed it up a whopping 12 times. This led to them committing a season-high 17 turnovers, which led to 21 SMU points off of them. Then you add in the fact that the Cards shot it only 12-of-33 in the second half, and you have the perfect recipe for a loss.

While the game was tied as late as the 6:33 mark of the second half, SMU ended the game on a 19-9 run. Louisville turned it over six times in that final stretch, made just three of their final 11 shot attempts, while SMU connected on eight of their final 10.

"I think down the stretch, in the second half, we reverted a little bit, and had some of that in crucial moments and crucial possessions when the game was still in the balance," Kelsey said. "We tried to shoot a hero shot, or shoot our way out of trouble, instead of just trusting what we do in the flow of our offense and continuing to generate good shots.

"We forced a couple, they made a couple tough ones, then we turned the ball over. That's not winning basketball, especially on the road."

Louisville will be back in action this Saturday at 2:15 p.m. EST, when they host Georgia Tech at the KFC Yum! Center.

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