Louisville Falls to Michigan State in NCAA Tournament

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The Louisville men's basketball program's run in the NCAA Tournament has come to an end.

Tasked with facing Michigan State in the second round of the Big Dance, the Cardinals were unable to pull off the upset over the Spartans, falling 77-69 on Saturday at the KeyBank Center.

Sixth-seeded and No. 23 AP-ranked Louisville ends year two under head coach Pat Kelsey with a 24-11 overall mark, including 11-7 in regular season ACC play. While UofL was able to win their first NCAA Tournament game since 2017 with their 83-79 takedown of USF in the first round this past Thursday, they have not reached the Sweet 16 since 2015.

Defense has been a bit of a hinderance against quality opponents this season for UofL, and third-seeded and No. 9 AP ranked Michigan State (26-7, 15-5 Big Ten) took advantage of it. The Spartans shot 47.3 percent from the field, 11-of-26 on three-point tries, and won the rebounding battle 39-to-32. They also sank more than twice the free throws even attempted by Louisville, going 14-of-19 to the Cardinals' 4-of-6.

With star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. still sidelined due to a back injury, it certainly impacted Louisville's offensive efficiency. They only shot 41.3 percent for the game, connected on just 13 of their 37 attempted threes after going 13-of-25 in the first round against USF.

Ryan Conwell led the Cardinals with 21 points, with Adrian Wooley adding 17. While these combined to shoot 14-of-25, the rest of Louisville's team was 12-of-38. Coen Carr also scored 21 points for Michigan State, with the Spartans also getting a 12-point/16-assist game from Jeremy Fears Jr.

Louisville had some early juice in this game, making three of their first six attempts and holding Michigan State to 1-of-5 in the opening segment. However, a crucial momentum-swinging call came at the 15:43 mark, with Conwell picking up his second foul and having to head to the bench.

The Cardinals' offensive efforts then took a nose dive, as they shot 1-for-11 while Conwell sat on the bench until the 10:00 mark. Additionally, the Spartans then connected on six of their next seven shot attempts, pulling ahead by as much as 10 points.

But UofL kept hanging around. They upped their level of intensity on the defensive end, forcing MSU to go 6-of-16 from the field in the half's final 11 minutes, and getting Sparty to turn the ball over nine times in the entire first half. Louisville also able to re-gather themselves some offensively, hitting eight of their final 16 attempts in the period to only trail 36-31 at halftime.

While Louisville was able to keep pace down the stretch of the first half, they have been prone to slow starts to second halves, and that was no different against Michigan State. Multiple defensive breakdowns right out of the gates led to the Spartans hitting three of their first four baskets of the second half, and the Cardinals were forced to burn a timeout just 1:40 into the half after going down nine.

Despite this, UofL still kept themselves in the game, going 14-of-30 from the field and 9-of-19 from three-point range to try and keep pace, and even trim their deficit to as little a three with 12:04 left to go

But keeping pace is all they could do. Not only did they allowed MSU to shoot 13-of-27 in the second half plus 4-of-12 on threes, a critical segment came after Louisville made it a one-possession game.

Aided by a flagrant foul called against Zougris, Michigan State fired off a 13-3 run to give them a 13-point advantage with 6:41 left. From that point onwards, the Spartans' lead only dipped to as low as six, adding an 11-of-16 mark at the free throw line in this half to keep the Cards at bay.

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