By Dalton Ray —
Men’s basketball recorded their first-ever ACC conference tournament win with their 82-74 victory over Florida State. Louisville advances to play No. 1 Virginia Thursday, March 8 at noon in the quarterfinal.
Senior Quentin Snider (19 points) and junior Ray Spalding (18 points) pushed U of L to the second round win, combining for 15-of-26 shooting from the floor. The hometown pair helped the Cards fight off the 52-point second half from FSU.
Junior Deng Adel scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
The Cardinals went 10-for-16 from three and only committed nine turnovers.
The teams traded blows in the opening 10 minutes, but Louisville used a 14-1 run to pull apart. Consecutive 3-pointers from Spalding, Adel and freshman Darius Perry berated the Seminoles.
Louisville’s lead swelled to 19 going into the half.
Both teams started the second half with efficient shooting, but Louisville pushed their lead to a game-high 23 points with 9:39 to play.
Florida State used four 3-pointers on 16-5 run to cut the Louisville lead to 10. A block followed a dunk by FSU’s Mfiondu Kabengele put the Noles down double-digits, the first time since the first half.
With Louisville leading by eight with 2:10 to play, Snider grabbed a big offensive rebound off his missed free throw attempt and reset the offense. The ball exchanged hands and ended up in Adel’s, who buried a jumper and pushed the lead back to 10 with 1:51 to play.
Senior Anas Mahmoud recorded one of his five blocks with 1:04 to play, but FSU grabbed the rebound. The Noles put up a three, but missed.
Snider’s free throws with 15 seconds to play put the game away.
You can follow Dalton Ray on Twitter @dray5477.
Photo by Nancy Hanner / The Louisville Cardinal
