By Hannah Walker —
The Louisville men’s basketball team played their last ACC game Mar. 6 at the KFC Yum! Center against the Virginia Cavaliers. U of L lost with a final score of 58-68 and will be going into the conference tournament in the seventh seed.
During the first half, Louisville maintained their defense with the help of guard/forward sophomore Samuell Williamson. Williamson was able to score 4 of U of L’s points, make 7 rebounds and managed to make 1 assist during the first 20 minutes of the game.
Following his performance was sophomore guard David Johnson who made 6 of U of L’s points during the first half as well as 2 rebounds. By the end of the first half, Louisville was down 7 points with a score of 21-28.
Going into the second half, Louisville needed to increase both their percent scoring and their percent turnovers. The Cardinals only made 40% of scores during the first half of the game and 6% turnovers. Louisville would need to make at least 20% more scores and 10% more turnovers than Virginia to gain a decent advantage.
However, Louisville only had an 8% increase in scoring during the second half and continued to decrease in turnovers. Although their offense continued to get better throughout the game, they lacked defensively against Virginia’s team.
Nonetheless, Johnson continued to be Louisville’s star player during the second half of the game, as well as redshirt freshman forward Jae’Lyn Withers. Johnson was able to score 8 points for the Cardinals and Withers was able to score 12 point and 4 rebounds during the final stretch of the game.
When asked what happened today at the senior game, coach Chris Mack said the Cavaliers were a tough team to score against.
“We missed some points at the free throw line and some lay ups,” Mack said. “Those things you just can’t do against UVA.”
Photo Courtesy of GoCards
