Virginia Basketball Defeats Louisville 61-58 | Live Updates
The Virginia Cavaliers (20-4, 12-3 ACC) defeated the Louisville Cardinals (3-23, 1-14 ACC) 61-58 on Wednesday night at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. Read a full play-by-play and live analysis for the game below. Most recent updates are at the top of the page.
Read a full recap of the game here: Virginia Avoids Disastrous Upset, Escapes Louisville With Sloppy 61-58 Win
Final Score: Virginia 61, Louisville 58
Clark is unable to get the ball inbounds and is forced to call a timeout, but Virginia still has two timeouts remaining. Out of the timeout, UVA has Vander Plas inbounding the ball and he passes to Clark, who is fouled right away. Clark misses the front end of the one-and-one and Louisville has a chance to tie the game. Suddenly with the game on the line, Virginia plays an excellent possession of defense and doesn't give Louisville a clean look. Lands eventually attempts an off-balance three-pointer that barely makes it to the rim and Vander Plas gets the rebound with 0.7 seconds left on the clock. Of course, Vander Plas misses the front end of the one-and-one, but time expires and UVA escapes Louisville with a 61-58 win. What an ugly, sloppy performance for the Cavaliers, but a win is a win.
Virginia 61, Louisville 58 | Final
UVA breaks the Louisville full-court press and then Kihei Clark drives on Withers late in the shot clock and draws a foul. Clark misses the first, but makes the second free throw. Ellis misses a short floater but JJ Traynor is there for the offensive rebound and lays it in over Vander Plas. Louisville trails Virginia 61-58 with 30.8 seconds remaining.
Virginia 61, Louisville 58 | 30.8 2H
Jae'Lyn Withers is fouled at the rim by Gardner and he makes both free throws to get Louisville back within six. With the shot clock winding down, Withers tries to elevate for a jumper but Franklin swipes the ball away on the way up for a clutch steal. Vander Plas finds Clark on a backdoor cut, but Clark blows the layup and it remains a six-point game. Ellis drives inside and draws a foul on Clark. That sends Ellis to the line for a one-and-one and he makes both free throws. It's a four-point games with 1:16 remaining.
Virginia 60, Louisville 56 | 1:16 2H
Ryan Dunn taps out an offensive rebound to give Virginia an extended possession and then Kihei Clark drives inside and draws a foul on Mike James, making both free throws. Clark gets stuck in the paint after picking up his dribble, but he somehow manages to flip a shot up onto the rim and the balls hangs up there for a moment before dropping in to give Virginia a nine-point lead. Beekman picks off a pass and takes it the other way before lobbing to Ryan Dunn, who is fouled by Kamari Lands before he can finish the alley-oop. It's a good foul for Louisville as Dunn misses both free throws. Withers drives inside and draws a foul on McKneely, going 1/2 from the free throw line. Kihei Clark drives inside and finishes with a wild acrobatic layup off the glass. Louisville answers on the other end, as Sydney Curry sends a one-handed pass to Mike James in the corner for a three-pointer. Curry pushes off Vander Plas to snare an offensive rebound and lays in the putback. Isaac McKneely pulls up from the top of the key and knocks down a big three-pointer with a hand in his face. El Ellis backs down Beekman and hits a floater in the paint. Gardner gets loose under the basket and Clark finds him with a crisp pass for the easy layup. Thanks to 19 points from Ellis, Louisville is still in this game, trailing Virginia 60-52 with less than three minutes remaining.
Virginia 60, Louisville 52 | 2:51 2H
The refs determine that Franklin's foul is just a common foul. El Ellis maneuvers around a screen and gets inside for a layup, tying the game. Clark blows by Ellis and dishes to Kadin Shedrick for a dunk, ending a three-minute scoring drought for UVA. Armaan Franklin comes up with a steal, but he misses the wide-open dunk in transition. JJ Traynor, a 26% three-point shooter, pulls up and drains a three-pointer from the left wing to put Louisville back in front. Isaac McKneely pulls up from deep and knocks down a three to quiet the crowd. Jae'Lyn Withers drives and slams on the breaks before elevating for a jumper to tie the game again. Kihei Clark pulls up from just inside the arc and swishes it. Louisville leaves Ben Vander Plas wide open at the top of the key and he drills the three-pointer, putting UVA back ahead by five. Reece Beekman is having a terrible game offensively, but he makes a solid defensive play, blocking a layup attempt from El Ellis out of bounds.
Virginia 49, Louisville 44 | 8:00 2H
Vander Plas loses JJ Traynor on the inbounds play and Traynor finishes with a dunk. Franklin responds on the other end, driving to the basket and scoring with a high-arcing hook shot off the glass. Ellis drives inside and kicks to Mike James for an open corner three. Kamari Lands backs down Armaan Franklin and hits a turnaround mid-range jumper to get the Cards back within two points. Beekman turns the ball over and Franklin fouls Lands in transition to prevent the layup. The refs are reviewing the play to determine if it's a flagrant foul on Franklin for wrapping his arms around Lands.
Virginia 39, Louisville 37 | 12:01 2H
Reece Beekman pokes the ball away on Louisville's first possession of the game and Virginia capitalizes in transition with Armaan Franklin passing to Jayden Gardner for the fast-break layup. El Ellis scores for the first time since the opening five minutes of the game, hitting on a short jumper. Beekman leaves a layup short and Jae'Lyn Withers hits a jumper from the baseline to get the Cards back within one. Beekman drives to the basket and draws a foul, making both free throws. Vander Plas is whistled for a traveling violation, UVA's first turnover of the game. Virginia turns it over again, but Louisville turns it over right away as Beekman intercepts Louisville's long runout pass. That leads to an easy basket for the Cavaliers with Franklin passing to Gardner for an open layup. UVA gets a stop and then Gardner drives baseline and scores off the glass. Virginia has its largest lead of the game at 37-30. Louisville calls timeout.
Virginia 37, Louisville 30 | 15:35 2H
Reece Beekman drives baseline and sends a quick bounce pass to Ben Vander Plas, who cuts through the lane and finishes the open dunk. Franklin stays aggressive and drives to the basket and draws a foul on Withers and makes 1/2 free throws. Virginia gets another stop and Franklin goes right back to work, driving all the way to the basket from the top of the key and finishing off the glass with his left hand. Vander Plas makes a great play to save the ball inbounds to give possession to UVA and then he knocks down a three-pointer from the top of the key, capping a 12-0 run for Virginia to retake the lead. UVA plays a solid possession of defense, forcing a shot-clock violation as the late three-point attempt from Kamari Lands catches all air. Franklin gets a good look from three and misses it, but Gardner grabs the offensive rebound and gets fouled. Virginia gets the last possession of the half, but Vander Plas misses a pair of jumpers before time expires. Virginia holds Louisville scoreless for the final 5:18 of the half and takes a 29-26 lead into halftime.
Virginia 29, Louisville 26 | Halftime
El Ellis drives inside and kicks out to an open Mike James, who sinks the three-pointer from the opposite corner, giving the Cardinals a nine-point lead. Armaan Franklin comes free off of a screen and knocks down a crucial three-pointer to settle things down for the Cavaliers. JJ Traynor drives past Vander Plas on the baseline for an easy layup. James gets Franklin to bite on a pump-fake and then drives inside and draws a foul on Franklin. James goes 1/2 from the free throw line. Armaan Franklin drives from the right wing and draws a foul on Kamari Lands, making both free throws. Jayden Gardner picks off Louisville's pass and feeds ahead to Franklin for an easy fast-break dunk. Franklin has nine points to help the Cavaliers start to close the gap.
Virginia 21, Louisville 26 | 3:51 1H
Reece Beekman is fouled by Hercy Miller on a jumper with less than a second left on the shot clock and Beekman goes to the line and makes 1/2 free throws. El Ellis drives to the rim and draws a foul on Beekman, making both free throws. Ellis pulls up and hits his second three-pointer of the game from the left wing and Louisville leads by five. Virginia's field goal drought of more than four minutes finally comes to an end as Beekman drives to the paint and passes to a cutting Isaac McKneely, who finishes at the rim with a two-hand dunk. Ellis loses Clark on a screen and hits an open catch-and-shoot three from the right wing, his third three-pointer of the first half. Clark and Kadin Shedrick run a nice give-and-go move and Clark finishes with a layup off the glass. Sydney Curry grabs an offensive rebound and scores over Shedrick.
Virginia 14, Louisville 20 | 7:26 1H
Clark inbounds to Franklin, who elevates and hits a mid-range jumper from the baseline. El Ellis answers on the other end with a fadeaway jumper from the left elbow. After a couple of empty possessions for both teams, Ellis pulls up for a deep three-pointer and drills it to put Louisville back in front.
Virginia 9, Louisville 10 | 11:28 1H
Jae'Lyn Withers gets open and hits a corner three to get the scoring started for Louisville. After a few empty possessions to start the game, Virginia gets on the board as Ben Vander Plas is there for the putback off of a Reece Beekman missed layup. UVA gets a stop and then Jayden Gardner scores inside off a nice entry pass from Kihei Clark. Withers hits a short jumper, but then Clark responds with a three from the top of the key off the feed from Armaan Franklin.
Virginia 7, Louisville 5 | 14:29 1H
