Louisville Upset at Stanford for First ACC Loss

STANFORD, Calif. - Wrapping up their trip out west with a matchup at Stanford, the Louisville men's basketball program could not pull of the West Coast sweep, instead getting upset 80-76 on Friday night from Maples Pavilion.

The No. 16 Cardinals (11-3, 1-1 ACC) fall to 1-3 in true road games this season, with the lone win coming against Cal in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener this past Tuesday. Louisville has not won their first two games in conference play since the 2021-22 season.

Once again, Louisville was without star point guard Mikel Brown Jr., as he missed his fourth straight game due to a lower back injury. Additionally, while forward Kasean Pryor (knee) was removed from the ACC Injury Report, he did not see the floor.

As you can imagine, this significantly impacted their abilities on both ends of the floor. Louisville shot just 43.3 percent from the floor and was only 6-of-27 on three-point attempts, with both their made and attempted threes being season-lows. They also had more turnovers (12) than assists (11) for just the second time this season.

Defensively, they weren't much better. Facing a Stanford team that could only muster 40 points at home against Notre Dame, UofL allowed them to shoot 46.3 percent from the field and 9-of-19 on threes. This came despite out-rebounding them 39-31 and scoring more points in the paint (36-to-28).

Four Cardinals broke double figures, led by Ryan Conwell's 18 points - although he shot 6-for-21 and 2-of-14 on threes. Isaac McKneely had 17 points, Sananda Fru added 15 points and eight rebounds, and J'Vonne Hadley finished 14 points. On the other sideline, freshman Cardinal guard Ebuka Okorie had a game-high 28 points.

Unlike the last game at Cal where Louisville started strong and never relinquished control of the game, it was Stanford who had the early momentum. The Cardinals hit just six of their first 22 shot attempts, including a woeful stretch of 10 straight misses, allowing the Cardinal to take a nine-point lead with just under eight minutes until halftime.

That being said, Louisville had a proper response on both ends of the floor, and made sure to not let things get out of control. They hit six of their final 10 shots of the half, while holding Stanford to a 2-of-8 stretch to end the period after they started 10-of-18. Put this together, and UofL ended the first half on a 14-6 run to trim their deficit to just 35-34.

It was a back-and-forth affair to start the second half, as the lead changed hands 11 times in the first 12 minutes of the period, and it only got a three-point advantage in either direction just once. Momentum started to shift in Stanford's direction midway through the period, as a 9-2 run gave them a six-point lead with 9:52 left.

The Cardinals' deficit didn't get any greater than that, and they had even re-tied the game at one point, but they could not get over the hump.

Next up, Louisville returns home for a massive ranked showdown against Duke. Tip-off against the Blue Devils is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 6 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

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