Virginia Basketball Defeats Louisville 75-60 | Live Updates
The Virginia Cavaliers (23-6, 15-5 ACC) defeated the Louisville Cardinals (4-27, 2-18 ACC) 75-60 in the regular season finale on Saturday afternoon at John Paul Jones Arena. See a full play-by-play and live analysis for the game below.
Read a full recap of the game here: Virginia Takes Care of Business, Beats Louisville 75-60 in Season Finale
Final Score: Louisville 60, Virginia 75
Mike James draws a foul on Vander Plas and makes both free throws. Gardner drives inside and passes to Vander Plas at the last second for a layup. El Ellis is fouled by Kihei Clark, but Ellis misses both free throws and JPJ erupts as the UVA fans in attendance are awarded free bacon for one final time this season. Beekman dishes to Franklin, who finishes at the rim. Louisville nearly turns it over, but Mike James collects the loose ball and scores plus a foul on Vander Plas, his fourth personal. James completes the three-point play. Clark is fouled and goes to the line for a one-and-one, making the first, but missing the second. Franklin steals the ball from Ellis and is immediately fouled. Franklin makes both free throws. Caffaro fouls James, who makes both free throws. Chase Coleman checks into the game and Kihei Clark is subbed out for the final time at John Paul Jones Arena, receiving a loud ovation from the crowd. Chase Coleman steps back and pulls up for a three-pointer and drains it, sending JPJ into a frenzy. Mike James hits a three-pointer and Virginia dribbles out the clock. UVA defeats Louisville 75-60 in the regular season finale and clinches a share of the ACC regular season title.
Louisville 60, Virginia 75 | Final
Beekman tosses an accurate lob pass to Gardner, who catches in mid-air and finishes off the glass. Gardner is 5/5 with 10 points in the second half alone. Louisville refuses to go away. El Ellis finds Roosevelt Wheeler at the rim for a dunk. Ben Vander Plas gets Wheeler to bite on a pump fake and finishes off the glass plus a foul. Vander Plas goes to the line and knocks down the free throw, a great sign for Vander Plas who has struggled mightily from the foul line. Mike James drives on Franklin and scores off the glass through some contact. Franklin curls around a screen and scores with his left hand. James responds right away, spinning into the paint and banking in a shot off the glass plus a foul on Franklin. James makes the ensuing free throw and Louisville trails by 13. Clark drives into the paint and finds a cutting Ryan Dunn, who finishes at the rim with his third dunk of the game.
Louisville 50, Virginia 65 | 2:53 2H
Ellis gets downhill and draws a foul on Franklin, making both free throws. McKneely sends a great pass to Caffaro, who looked well on his way to an easy dunk before Basili fouled him to avoid the basket. Caffaro goes to the line and swishes both free throws. Louisville uses some nice ball movement to free up El Ellis and he hits the three-pointer from the top of the key. Ellis is up to 14 points now, with 10 of those points coming in the second half. Louisville gets an offensive rebound off of an air-ball and JJ Traynor finishes the easy layup. The Cardinals are just barely hanging around, trailing by 13 with eight minutes left.
Louisville 43, Virginia 56 | 7:54 2H
Francisco Caffaro creates a second-chance opportunity by tapping out an offensive rebound and then UVA works the ball inside to Ryan Dunn, who confidently pulls up and drains a mid-range jumper from the free throw line. Sydney Curry receives a pass from Mike James down low and finishes off the glass. Virginia answers as Isaac McKneely hits a three-pointer from the right wing plus a foul on Lands. McKneely can't convert the four-point play as he misses the free throw. Fabio Basili cuts inside Caffaro to grab an offensive rebound and finishes off the glass. McKneely comes around a screen and drives all the way to the basket, finishing the layup with his inside hand. Louisville answers as JJ Traynor gets a hook shot to go down low. Franklin passes to Caffaro on the low block, and Caffaro finishes at the rim for his second bucket of the game.
Louisville 36, Virginia 54 | 10:20 2H
El Ellis comes around a screen and pulls up for a deep three-pointer at the top of the key and buries it. Gardner stays hot and hits a mid-range jumper from the right side. Ellis beats Clark on a backdoor cut and Kamari Lands finds him for the easy layup. Gardner continues to eat on the inside, this time facing up on the smaller Ellis and hitting the jumper from the same spot as last possession. Clark nearly forces a turnover in the back court and El Ellis calls a timeout to maintain possession.
Louisville 30, Virginia 46 | 14:23 2H
Jae'Lyn Withers drives on Armaan Franklin and draws a foul, making 1/2 free throws. Clark's three-pointer rattles in and out but Franklin is there to snag the offensive rebound and score with a short hook. Clark sends a nifty pass inside to Gardner who scores with a reverse layup off the glass. Withers steps back into a fadeaway jumper over Franklin for Louisville's first basket of the second half. Gardner answers with another bucket, hitting a fallaway jumper from the baseline. Louisville grabs multiple offensive rebounds and eventually JJ Traynor slams home a dunk.
Louisville 25, Virginia 42 | 15:55 2H
Ryan Dunn is called for a foul on Withers, who goes to the line and makes 1/2 free throws. Beekman drives baseline and sends a sweet bounce pass into the paint to Dunn, who slams home his second dunk of the game. Clark drives down the lane and draws a foul on Fabio Basili, making both free throws. Clark picks up his second personal foul and checks out of the game with less than a minute to go in the half. JJ Traynor backs down Dunn and hits a turnaround jumper to get Louisville to 20 points. Franklin drives and kicks out to Isaac McKneely, who drains his first three-pointer of the game from the left corner. McKneely then sticks his hand in to dislodge the ball on a drive by Ellis and time expires in the first half with Virginia holding its largest lead at 36-20.
Louisville 20, Virginia 36 | Halftime
Ben Vander Plas is left wide open under the basket for about three full seconds and finally Beekman finds him with a quick pass and Vander Plas finishes the lefty layup to get on the board. Mike James draws a foul on Beekman and makes both free throws to end a Louisville scoring drought of more than three minutes. Louisville hasn't made a field goal in more than eight minutes. The Cardinals end that drought but beating the Cavaliers up the floor off of a defensive rebound and Kamari Lands passes to James, who drives and scores in transition. Virginia is experiencing a cold spell offensively, hitting just one of its last eight field goals and going nearly three minutes since scoring. Reece Beekman ends that drought with a catch-and-shoot corner three off a nice pass from Clark. Louisville answers back with a three-pointer as El Ellis passes to Mike James for a corner three.
Louisville 17, Virginia 29 | 2:39 1H
Francisco Caffaro plays incredible on-ball defense in the low post on Sydney Curry and Louisville is unable to get a shot off before the clock expires for Louisville's second shot-clock violation of the first half. Taine Murray checks into the game for Caffaro as UVA goes with a lineup of Clark-McKneely-Murray-Dunn-Gardner. McKneely sends the ball down the Gardner on the baseline for a short jumper and Gardner splashes it. Ellis drives on Clark and Clark is called for a foul. Ellis makes both free throws. Virginia gets the ball to Gardner in the middle of the zone and he quickly drives past JJ Traynor for a layup. Louisville switches back to man-to-man defense after an unsuccessful stretch of possessions trying to stop UVA with the zone. Beekman and Vander Plas double-team Ellis at mid-court and force a turnover. Beekman and Vander Plas play hot potato with the ball back and forth down the court until Beekman eventually finishes the layup in transition. Kenny Payne takes a timeout with UVA leading 24-10.
Louisville 10, Virginia 24 | 7:17 1H
Gardner flashes to an open spot in the Louisville zone and hits the jumper from the left elbow. Louisville responds on the other end as Mike James drives inside and scores with a floater just before the shot clock expired. Ryan Dunn is fouled on a backdoor cut and makes 1/2 free throws. Isaac McKneely and Francisco Caffaro check into the game. Kamari Lands drives on McKneely and hits a short jumper from the paint. Beekman fires a pass down low to Caffaro, who finishes at the rim with an explosive dunk. Ellis is called for an offensive foul as he hooked his arm around Beekman. Franklin gets open in the corner and knocks down his second three-pointer of the game off the feed from Beekman.
Louisville 8, Virginia 18 | 11:45 1H
Kihei Clark starts his final game at John Paul Jones Arena with a bang, knocking down a three-pointer from the left corner off the feed from Reece Beekman. Armaan Franklin curls around a screen and finds a lane to the basket before drawing a foul on Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, making both free throws. Jae'Lyn Withers gets Louisville on the board by spinning into a fadeaway jumper over Franklin. Beekman comes up with a steal and starts a slowly developing fastbreak. Virginia works the ball around and eventually Gardner passes to a trailing Franklin, who splashes the three-pointer from the right wing. Louisville nearly turns it over but El Ellis is able to recover possession and drive to the basket and draw a foul on Ben Vander Plas. Ryan Dunn checks into the game to replace Vander Plas. Ellis makes both free throws. Louisville switches to a zone look on the defensive end and Kihei Clark picks it apart, getting inside before dishing to Ryan Dunn for an easy dunk. Gardner steps up and blocks a three-pointer from Ellis, but there is a scrum for the rebound and Ellis grabs it and gets to the basket for a layup just before the shot clock expired. The refs review the play and determine that Ellis did not get the layup off in time, so it's a shot clock violation and no basket.
Louisville 4, Virginia 10 | 15:05 1H
