By Andrew Hornback
With two of their top four scorers out due to injury, the No. 18 University of Louisville men’s basketball team suffered its worse home loss of the Rick Pitino era on Saturday, Dec. 5, to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 49ers.
“That was a bitter pill to swallow,” Pitino said. “The great equalizer is the three-point shot. We can’t say it was out of range because they make that shot. They were just much better than us.”
The Cardinals trailed by as many as 26, and struggled to make shots without three of their top guards, senior Jerry Smith, junior Preston Knowles, and freshman Peyton Siva.
While the Cardinal defense did force 13 turnovers and recorded 10 steals, they allowed the 49ers to hit 10 3-pointers and record 18 offensive rebounds.
“Unfortunately, we have been a very poor defensive team from the beginning,” Pitino said. “We are not athletic enough defensively, and that’s been very disappointing.”
The rebounding margin also favored the smaller 49ers, who out rebounded Pitino’s team 46-35. It was only the 2nd time all season the Cardinals were out-rebounded at Freedom Hall.
“They’ve got a young man with a knee brace on from an ACL and he’s out-rebounding us at the end of the game when they’re up 20,” Pitino said. “It was disappointing, but we learned a valuable lesson.”
Offensively, only one Cardinal player shot 50 percent or better from the field, as sophomore forward Samardo Samuels totaled 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting. The Cardinals shot 36 percent as a team, their lowest percentage this season.
“Not paying attention to the scouting report was the biggest disappointment, and we paid huge consequences because of that,” Pitino said. “We’ll move on. We’ve got a lot to learn. It was just a very disappointing loss.”
Next up for Louisville will be the Western Carolina University Catamounts on Saturday, Dec. 12, at Freedom Hall. The Catamounts boast a 7-1 record on the season and have won six straight games.
As for the injured Cardinal guards, Pitino stressed that Knowles may be available for the game, but that Smith and Siva likely wouldn’t.
“I think [Preston] would be the only one,” Pitino said. “But that only one would be a lift for us.”
