By Benjamin Lampkin
University of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino warned the masses. The stretch of games from late January through February would be the most difficult of the season.
Now, after falling to Memphis 80-73 Wednesday night in Freedom Hall, the Cardinals (19-3, 9-2) have lost two conference games in the span of a week, and things won’t get any easier.
“They (Memphis) just took us to the woodshed on the glass,” said Pitino. “They kicked the hell out of us on the glass. We didn’t deserve to win and they did.”
The rebounding factor was almost undoubtedly the cause behind Louisville’s third loss of the season. The Tigers (17-5, 8-3) manhandled U of L 47-31 on the boards, including 20 coming on the offensive glass. Memphis’ starting center Chris Massie and backup Earl Barron, a seven-footer, each had 11 total boards on the night.
The defense of Memphis didn’t exactly contain Reece Gaines, but they did force the senior guard into a number of difficult shots. Gaines finished the evening with 19 points, but was only 5-18 from the floor, including 1-9 from behind the three-point line.
The other Cards didn’t fare much better. Although Francisco Garcia had 17 points on the night (on 4-6 shooting and 6-6 free throws), no other player was especially effective. And in a rarity, U of L’s bench was outscored, 31-15, by the Tigers.
“At home we don’t play as well teamwise, and that’s a strange phenomenom,” said Pitino. “That’s a great win for them, and they clinched an NCAA berth.”
The Tigers controlled the tempo of the game thanks to point guard Antonio Burks, who could not be pressed. The Tigers were also able to keep U of L from running their fast break (the Cards had 0 fast break points), and lived at the line in the second half. The Tigers were 26-35 from the charity stripe in the second half alone and could have had a much larger lead had their free-throw percentage been higher than 64.6%
“We wanted to grind it,” said Memphis head coach John Calipari. “This is the second game we’ve had a full complement of players, the other being Syracuse. I know Rick and how his teams play, and we wanted to grind it out.”
Memphis had five players in double figures scoring, led by Burks’ 16.
Gaines, Garcia, and Stone (10) were the only Cards to hit in double digits.
U of L travels to Cincinnati on Saturday to face the Bearcats and try to maintain their lead over Marquette in the American Division of Conference USA. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
