By Charles L. Westmoreland
PHOTO GALLERY: Cards lose to UConn (Photos by Terra Simms and Meredith Pass)
The then-15th ranked Louisville Cardinals pecked and clawed through 36 minutes of basketball before allowing the fourth-ranked Connecticut Huskies to pull away during the final minutes of the game Saturday night, losing 58-71 at home.
This marked Louisville’s third consecutive Big East loss at home, dropping the Cards to 13-5 on the year and 1-4 in conference play.
Head Coach Rick Pitino credited the loss to inexperience.
“We’re just not an overly talented basketball team right now,” Pitino said following the game. “This is probably the weakest team I’ve had outside of the first year since I’ve been here because of all the inexperience … but they’re doing the best they can.”
The Cards were playing their second straight game without their only senior, Taquan Dean.
Bench scoring and field goal percentage were the big differences in the contest. Louisville’s bench contributed only three points during the game compared to 21 points from the Huskies’ bench. UConn (17-1,4-1) shot 52 percent from the field and made 19 of 23 free throws compared to Louisville’s 36 percent shooting, including two of 20 from three-point range.
“Losing gets you tight on your jump shots,” Pitino said. “They were all good shots. Hopefully down the road we’ll start making some.”
Hard-nosed defense on Louisville’s end almost compensated for their ineffective offense. Louisville forced 17 turnovers, while giving up just 10. Junior guard Brandon Jenkins grabbed a game-high four steals. The Cards had eight steals as a team.
The Cardinal offense was stapled by the low-post moves of sophomore center David Padgett, who scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds, shooting 11 of 18 from the floor.
Louisville scored the first two points of the game but trailed the remainder of the first half.
Louisville’s 10 offensive rebounds and nine second-chance points helped the Cards overcome a 12-point deficit with 5:33 left to play in the first half. Louisville switched to zone defense and full-court press, causing several crucial turnovers. A couple low-post scores from Padget with less than 1:30 left in the half pulled the Cards within four points. UConn scored on the next position but with 27 seconds on the clock freshman guard Andre McGee made a three-point play leaving Louisville trailing 30-27 at halftime.
McGee only scored three points in the game but dished out six assists to only one turnover.
Louisville started the second half with the same energy and a baseline dunk by freshman forward Terrence Williams with 18 minutes left to play captured the lead. Williams scored six of his 10 points in the second half.
The Cards and Huskies traded the lead four times over the next few minutes until a couple second chance points helped UCONN pull ahead 50-43 with 8:55 left to play.
Louisville resorted to a zone defense and full-court press to try and pull ahead. With less than four minutes to play, UCONN scored on four consecutive free throws, followed by two Cardinal turnovers, to pull ahead 65-55 with 2:30 remaining thanks to an offensive spark by junior guard Marcus Williams, who scored 10 of his team-high 15 points in the second half. A couple free thrown by UCONN forward Rudy Gay with less than a minute left sealed the victory.
Louisville will get another chance to win a conference game at home tomorrow against Cincinnati (13-5, 2-2) at Freedom Hall. The game will be aired on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m.
