Louisville Holds Off Miami in Regular Season Finale

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - It might have taken until the last day of the regular season, and they didn't have their best player at their disposal, but the Louisville men's basketball program has finally secured a signature road win.

Heading down to Miami for their final game of the regular season, the Cardinals were able to weather the Hurricanes and come out on top, leaving the Watsco Center with a 92-89 win on Saturday.

Louisville (22-9, 11-8) led by as much as 12 in the second half, but No. 22 Miami (24-7, 13-5 ACC) was able to cut into that deficit, with the two teams trading barbs in the final four-plus minutes.

Down by one with 18 seconds to go, Adrian Wooley drained a go-ahead three-pointer for the Cards, then pressure from Ryan Conwell directly led to a turnover on the ensuing Canes possession. Miami got a quick layup from Tre Donaldson, Sananda Fru made just one of his two free throws on the next possession with a second left, but Donaldson's last-second heave did not go down.

Louisville snaps a 14-game losing streak against against AP-ranked competition on the road, and earn their first Quad 1A victory of the season after previously being 0-8 in such games. Led by first year head coach Jai Lucas, Miami had previously won nine of their last 11 to jump into the AP Poll earlier this week.

Offense was the order of the day for both sidelines. Louisville connected on 61.1 percent of their field goal attempts (their second-highest this season), were a blazing 12-of-24 on three-point tries, and has 22 assists against only seven turnovers.

As for Miami, they also feasted on their end of the floor. The Canes shot 56.4 percent (second-worst by a Louisville opponent) and 8-of-19 on threes, had a 22-to-8 assist/turnover ratio, and went 19-of-23 at the free throw line.

Four players for UofL broke double figures, led by a 24-point night by Ryan Conwell. J'Vonne Hadley added 16 points, Wooley had 15 plus six assists and four rebounds, and Isaac McKneely also had 15 points.

The victory came despite not having Mikel Brown Jr. available. The star true freshman point guard had to miss his second consecutive game due to his lingering back issue, and 10th games overall this season.

Louisville attempted to set the tone right out of the gates. They made four of their first five attempts of the game and forced four turnovers in the first three minutes, forcing Miami to burn a timeout just 3:02 into the game after taking an early 10-2 lead.

Offensively, the Cardinals were able to keep this pace up, as they shot 18-of-29 and a blazing 9-of-15 from deep. However, their defense took a massive step backwards after the opening segment, allowing the Hurricanes to go 16-of-29 from the floor in the half. UM cut their deficit to as little as five, but UofL ended the period strong and took a 46-37 lead into halftime.

In their two most recent road games at North Carolina and Clemson, Louisville had gotten off to extremely slow starts to second halves. While it wasn't a complete meltdown to start the period, Miami slowly but surely got back into the game.

On one hand, the Cards continued their onslaught on the rim, going 15-of-25 from the field in the period. But on the other, defense continued to be an issue.

Not only did the Canes shoot 15-of-26 in the second half, they had much more success getting to the free throw line, going 18-of-21 from the charity stripe (compared to 13-of-13 from UofL). It allowed them to tie the game at the 4:21 mark, and during that final stretch, there were six lead changes and three ties.

Next up, Louisville will head to Charlotte, N.C. for the ACC Tournament next week. The Cardinals have already clinched a single-bye in the tournament, and their first opponent will be determined later this evening.

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