Louisville Falls Into Second Half Hole, Can't Mount Comeback at North Carolina

This story will be updated.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The signature road win continues to elude the Louisville men's basketball program.

Making the trek to the Dean E. Smith Center for a ranked matchup with North Carolina, the Cardinals could not overcome a big deficit early in the second half, with their comeback attempt against the Tar Heels coming up short and resulting in a 77-74 defeat on Monday night.

No. 24 Louisville (20-8, 9-6 ACC) trailed by just one point at halftime, but thanks to ten straight misses to start the second half, No. 18 North Carolina (22-6, 10-5 ACC) went up by as much as 16 in the first seven minutes of the half. They were able to eventually work their way back to trailing just by a single possession, even getting a couple chances in the final minute to tie or take the lead, but could not hit their shots.

Louisville has now lost 13 straight road games against AP-ranked competition, with their last five coming under second-year head coach Pat Kelsey. The loss to North Carolina also moves them to 0-7 against Quad 1A teams this season.

Once again, defense was the primary reason for another ranked road loss. Even without star forward Caleb Wilson, UNC shot 53.6 percent from the field and 8-of-22 on threes. They notched 40 points in the paint, despite UofL winning the rebounding battle 41-to-32 (including 16-to-7 on offensive boards).

Louisville wasn't super efficient on offense, either. Despite going 14-of-39 on threes, they still shot just 38.8 percent from the field. While they cut down their turnovers to just 10, that came with just nine assists on their 26 made baskets.

Mikel Brown Jr. scored 24 points and Ryan Conwell added 23, but the due combined to shoot just 16-of-44 from the field. J'Vonne Hadley also broke double figures with 14 points, while Seth Trimble for Carolina scored a game-high 30 points.

Early on, Louisville seemed like they might cruise in this one. They connected nine of their first 15 shot attempts, which included a 5-of-9 mark on three-point tries. While North Carolina hit six of their first 11 shots, with the Cardinals shooting are a higher caliber and also doing a great early job at crashing the boards, they pulled ahead by 10 just six-and-a-half-minutes in.

But throughout the rest of the first half, their shooting got incredibly streaky, while their already shaky defensive efforts took another step backwards. UofL hit just six of their remaining 20 attempts in the opening half, while UNC connected 11 of their final 17 - en route to shooting a blazing 60.7 percent in the half. Thanks to eight made three and seven offensive boards, Louisville trailed just 39-38 at the break.

When the two teams returned to action, North Carolina took complete and total control of the game - but not completely because of their own doing.

On top of missing their first 10 shots of the second half, it was part of a run of 15 straight misses for Louisville stretching back to the end of the first half. Thanks to this, the Tar Heels fired off a 17-2 run right out of the locker room after halftime, taking a 56-40 lead with 13:38 left.

The Cardinals immediately countered with a quick 9-0 run, then spent the remainder of the period whittling away at the Tar Heels' deficit. They'd even gotten it to a three-point game with under a minute left, and had a chance to tie with 23 seconds left - but opted to take a drive at the rim, with Brown's layup in traffic missing its mark.

Next up, Louisville will stay on the road and remain in the Carolinas, traveling just south to face Clemson. Tip-off against the Tigers is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

More Cardinals Stories