By Derek DeBurger

Louisville’s nightmare season has finally ended. The Cards fall at the hands of the NC State Wolfpack.

With no real stakes at the end of their season, Louisville got out to a hot start and Skyy Clark was even hotter. Clark hit an instant three-pointer and later scored several buckets on fastbreaks. Off of a strong team performance led by Clark, the Cards jumped out to a 12-point lead.

And then suddenly, deja vu: their Swiss cheese-level defense. The Wolfpack slowly chipped away at the deficit, and as the lead shrunk to four the Cards began to turn the ball over. Louisville finally surrendered the lead off of a made free throw to bring the score to 34-35. In the final four minutes of the first half, the Cards traded buckets with NC State to get back with Brandon Huntley-Hatfield being the one to shoulder the offensive load.

Louisville would trail at the half 45-46.

The hot start for the Cards did not continue in the second half. Louisville may have only tailed by one point but shot 67% from both the field and from three. The Wolfpack quickly pushed their lead to seven, holding that margin for most of the half. Clark continued to will his team with his scoring, but the Cards never reclaimed the lead. The Wolfpack closed the game on a 16-8 run.

Louisville would lose 85-94.

Clark had a career night with career highs of 36 points and seven made threes. Clark’s 36 points are the most in a conference tournament for the Cards since Russ Smith scored 42 points in the 2014 American Conference Tournament. Clark also became just the sixth player to score 30-plus points and six-plus threes in the ACC tournament in the last 25 years. Huntley Hatfield posted a strong performance with 17 points and seven rebounds, and Tre White contributed another 13 points and six rebounds.

Tuesday’s loss marks the 52nd loss of head coach Kenny Payne’s career and caps off what has without a doubt been the worst two seasons in program history. Payne said in his post-game press conference that it takes three to four seasons to rebuild a program, and his work is not done. Whether he is brought back to continue his rebuild or not is squarely on the shoulders of athletic director Josh Heird.

Louisville finishes at 8-24 on the long, long season.

Photo Courtesy // Rachel Klotz, U of L Athletics