Louisville Falls Behind Early, Drops Ranked Matchup vs. Virginia

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program has just faltered against another quality opponent.

Capping off a three-game home stand with a ranked matchup against Virginia, the Cardinals could not overcome an extremely slow start, falling to the Cavaliers 79-70 at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night.

After starting the season at 11-2, including winning their first seven, No. 20 Louisville (12-5, 2-3 ACC) has now lost three of their last four. Their loss to No. 16 Virginia (15-2, 4-1 ACC) also drops them to just 2-5 against Quad 1 opponents in the NET so far this season, and 6-12 overall under second-year head coach Pat Kelsey.

Regardless of which side of the floor the ball was on, Louisville looked far from put together. They shot a season-low 35.8 percent from the field, were just 10-of-38 on three-point attempts, and had nine of their shot attempts blocked - which was a season-high.

While Virginia was held to 39.6 percent shooting, the Cavaliers went 14-of-34 on three-point tries, with both the makes and attempts being season highs. The Hoos also went 23-of-29 at the free throw line to the Cards' 12-of-18, while the latter was out-rebounded 44-to-36.

Isaac McKneely, who transferred to Louisville from Virginia this past offseason, scored a game-high 23 points. Ryan Conwell made his return to the lineup after missing the Boston College game to score 14 points and secure a team-best seven rebounds, while J'Vonne Hadley scored 11.

Louisville started this game about as poorly as you could imagine. Not only did they miss their first seven shot attempts of the game, Virginia made five of of their first seven - including a 4-of-5 opening salvo on three-point tries. Put it together, and they found themselves trailing 14-0 after the first three-and-a-half minutes.

Despite the disastrous start, the Cardinals found a way to claw back into the game. The Cavaliers' shooting cooled off some, as they hit just five of their remaining 26 attempts in the first half - including at one point missing 13 straight. UofL also made 10 of their final 24 attempts of the period following their seven misses to open the game, and the went into the half trailing only 33-28.

The momentum swung back in favor of Virginia when the two teams reconvened for the second half. Even once Louisville eventually found their shooting stroke, it wasn't enough to quite get over the hump.

The Cardinals shot 14-of-36 in the period and only 4-of-19 from three-point range, while the Cavaliers countered that by going 11-of-20 from the field after halftime with a 7-of-13 mark on threes.

Next up, Louisville will hit the road, heading up the Ohio River for a matchup with Pitt in the Steel City. Tip-off against the Panthers is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 17 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

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