By: Pierce Feltner
The University of Louisville men’s basketball beat the University of Pittsburgh for the second time this season 69-56. The Cardinals bounced back from their 52-47 loss to Virginia Saturday.
The Cardinals were lead by Junior Montrezl Harrell with 28 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocks and Sophomore Terry Rozier with 22 points, 10 rebounds, and three assists. The Cardinals fell behind 45-39 with 12:05 left in the second half, but then went on a 22-2 run to the 3:51 mark to put the game out of reach.
“Montrezl was playing like a man possessed and we just fed off his energy.” Terry Rozier said of the stretch.
“I’m amazed at Montrezl Harrell, that he could play the entire game without a break, and play as hard as that. His motor is really amazing.” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said.
At the beginning of the Louisville’s starter Wayne Blackshear came out of the game with a hip pointer injury and could not return for the rest of the game so Pitino had to look to the bench to step up for the win.
“We got a big lift tonight from some guys that don’t usually play. I thought Q [Quentin Snider] played very well tonight.” Pitino said.
Quentin Snider came off the bench for Louisville and scored an energetic four points during Louisville’s long run in the second half.
“He’s playing great in practice. The reason Quentin’s not playing better is because I haven’t been playing him… It is only because those two guys [Rozier and Jones] are great at containing defensively. I just wasn’t happy with Chris so I went with Q.” Pitino said.
“We needed Shaqquan to step up and we needed Quentin to step up and they did a great job.” Rozier said.
Pitino parked his starting point guard, Chris Jones, on the bench for the last twelve minutes of the game and let Snider finish out the game. Pitino refused to comment on why Jones did not play at the end of the game.
Terry Rozier continued his dominance in conference against Pitt. Rozier has averaged 20 points a game during conference play, which is second in the entire conference.
“Almost every 15-17 foot shot you think is going in.” Pitino said of Rozier’s dominant offensive play.
The Cardinals know that they will have plenty of points coming from Harrell, Jones, and Rozier every night, but had been looking for other players to step up on the offensive end. The Cards’ bench finally step up and scored 8 points against Pitt, even though the Cardinals did not make a single three point shot for the entire game for the first time since 1992.
This game could prove to be a huge momentum builder for the Cardinals as they go into the end of their season and tournament play. They may have finally found a few points coming from somewhere other than their core four starters.
