By Derek DeBurger
No. 13 Louisville loses their first conference game at the hands of the No. 23 North Carolina Tar Heels.
From the opening tipoff, each team wanted to establish themselves as the bully; every score went back and forth early on. It wasn’t until the final two minutes of the first quarter that UNC created some separation from the Cards, pushing the lead to nine by the end.
Louisville’s defense was able to step up in the second quarter to close the gap. After just over four minutes, the Cards had tied the game back up, yet traded buckets in the second until the buzzer sounded at the half.
The game was tied 36-36 at the half.
Louisville came out at the start of the third quarter and took advantage of the increased tightness with which the referees were calling the game. The Cards drew fouls and got to the free throw line, but struggled to make the Tar Heels pay with missed free throws. About halfway through the third, UNC switched up their defense and the Cards entered a scoring drought that lasted almost four-and-a-half minutes and a field goal drought that lasted over seven minutes.
During this time, UNC ballooned their lead to 11 points going into the fourth quarter. After a couple of crucial fouls called on forward Olivia Cochran and guard Nina Rickards to put each of them at four, Louisville changed its defense to a zone. In attempting to stop any more calls they instead gave several open looks from three. Each made three from UNC seemed to come at a time when the Cards were just starting to make a comeback effort, like a dagger to the heart. Louisville tried to make things interesting at the end, but it was too little, too late.
Louisville would lose 68-79.
A lot of the credit does need to go to the Tar Heels, but the Cards had many self-inflicted errors that kept them from winning.
The two biggest were the misses at the free throw line and the poor rebounding performance. The Cards only made 52.2% of their attempts from the free throw line despite averaging 76.6% on the season—a mark that ranks 39th in the country. On the boards, Louisville got out-rebounded by 14. Louisville isn’t a top-tier rebounding team, but neither is UNC. Getting out-rebounded by such an extreme margin is about effort, yes, but it’s also just about boxing out and being in position.
If these two teams meet again in the ACC Tournament Louisville might be able to taste victory, but for now, there’s just the bitter taste of countless missed opportunities and unforced errors.
The Cards fall to 16-3 on the season and 5-1 in the ACC.
