By Brandon Davis
The University of Louisville men’s basketball team advanced to the team’s second straight Sweet 16 appearance after defeating Siena 79-72 in the University of Dayton Arena Sunday. But it wasn’t easy.
After leading by as many as 14 in the first half, the Cards saw their double-digit lead fall to a four point deficit. With 11:45 left to play in the second half, down eight, Siena scored 12 straight points over the next four minutes to take a 63-59 lead. During that run, Louisville turned the ball over six times which resulted in just one shot attempt, a missed three pointer by senior guard Andre McGee.
Head coach Rick Pitino called three timeouts during the run attempting to calm his players, and get the top-seeded squad refocused. He then challenged them to turn up their energy defensively.
“You’ve got to prove to yourselves now you’re a great basketball team,” he told his players.
With the momentum clearly on the side of the Saints and just over seven minutes left, the game had all the makings of the first big upset of this year’s tournament. It was over the course of the last seven minutes the Cards finally proved to their coach that they were something special.
“We thought we had them,” Kenny Hasbrouck, Siena senior guard said. “We were running them up and down. We kept up with them every time.”
Senior forward Terrence Williams was up for the test. Williams jump started the Cards with a put back off an offensive rebound and a made three point basket a couple trips later. He would score nine of his game high 24 points in the last seven minutes of play as the Cards closed out Siena with 20-9 run to advance to the next round.
“When people asked me how good they were, I couldn’t answer it honestly,” Pitino said. “When we were down four and we had to make big plays offensively and we had to make big rebounds defensively, not until that point did I ever believe that this team had it.”
Williams finished with 15 rebounds, one shy of his career high, to go with his four assists and two steals. He also displayed his continued improvement with his jump shot connecting on nine of his 14 attempts and was 4-of-6 from three.
“He definitely stepped up,” Earl Clark, who added 12 points and 12 rebounds, said. “I expect that from him. He’s our leader and he’s a great player, one of the best forwards in the country.”
Though they only managed to force Siena into nine turnovers for the entire game, compared to their own 17, the Cards showed tremendous heart and grit when they faced adversity which might not have been the case earlier in the season.
“In the beginning of the year, we would have lost that game, no question,” Williams said. “We were in that same situation at Notre Dame — and instead of reversing it and taking the lead, we went down from 10 to 20 to 30.”
U of L (30-5) will now move on to face 12 seeded Arizona (21-13) in Indianapolis on Friday at 7 P.M.
