By Derek DeBurger
Saturday’s loss to the Boston College Eagles somehow marks a new low for the program.
The seventh loss in a row marks the longest losing streak of the season and also marks the fourth year in a row the Cards have lost on senior night—the longest slide in program history.
Louisville leaned into senior night, starting seniors Zan Payne and Aiden McCool. The Cards jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but Boston College grew their lead to 10 points before Payne and McCool were pulled from the game.
The rest of the half was fairly even all things said and done. The Eagles were able to push the lead as high as 14 points but kept committing fouls to put the Cards at the free-throw line. The free throws of the Cards and the foul trouble for some major contributors of the Eagles kept the Cards in the game and even got the lead down to five before the half. However, the Cards gave up two buckets to end the half, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer, to put the deficit right back where it was.
The Cards trailed 31-41 at halftime.
Louisville made a slight push to start the second half, scoring six points to cut the deficit to four. Boston College then went on a 12-0 run to take the largest lead of the game at 16 points.
Even with great performances by Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Ty-Laur Johnson, Louisville fought to try to keep the game close, but it was to no avail. The Cards couldn’t hit enough shots and get enough stops to make a meaningful comeback.
Louisville would lose 61-67.
Huntley-Hatfield had a team-high 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Johnson contributed nine points off the bench, and Skyy Clark had 11 points and five assists. McCool scored the first points of his Louisville career with a pair of free throws. Every player who played hard on Saturday and throughout the season deserves their flowers.
It cannot be easy to give it your all when success seems so futile.
Louisville falls to an astonishing 8-23 on the season, 3-17 in the ACC, and 12-51 under head coach Kenny Payne.
Photo Courtesy // Sam Upshaw Jr, The Courier-Journal
