By Harry Barsan

The Louisville Cardinals pick up their second loss of the season to the Oklahoma Sooners in the championship round of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

This is now Louisville’s third loss in three appearances in the Atlantis championship all-time.

A little bit of adversity

Louisville got out fast with consecutive buckets from Noah Waterman and Kasean Pryor to take an early 5-0 lead.

Both squads exchanged blows for a while, showing how evenly matched they were. The Cards actually turned it over seven times before the under-12 TV-timeout in the first half, but still found themselves behind only a pair. That was until a slew of consecutive shots, including four threes, tied it up at 21-21.

As the half neared an end, a Jalon Moore jumper pushed the Sooner lead to 27-37. Buckets from Terrence Edwards Jr. and Chucky Hepburn could only do so much with a double-digit deficit and the clock running down in the half.

The Cards would go into the break down 32-39.

The star of the tournament so far, Hepburn, who started slow last game, picked up only six points on 2-for-2 from three-point range.

Trouble on Paradise Island

The second half opened with back-to-back missed threes, including an airball from Pryor. But the defense held strong, and Oklahoma couldn’t take advantage.

The next play on defense, Hepburn and Pryor both went down. While Hepburn got up quickly, Pryor laid still and wouldn’t get up. Once he did get up, he hobbled off on the court with a visibly injured leg.

J’Vonne Hadley, seemingly inspired from this spectacle, followed this with a three-point play on a layup to draw within four points.

With a little over five minutes remaining, Waterman stuffed a shot from a struggling Jeremiah Fears. Hepburn quickly dished it off to an open Reyne Smith, who sank a shot from way deep. Despite the Cards’ continued problems from three, Smith has been consistently reliable from this range, and the score was tied at 58-58 a piece.

The Sooners followed that up with a fast break layup to reclaim it at 58-60.

A long sequence saw the Cards get down by five with just a-minute-and-a-half left, but another three from Hadley cut it back down to two.

After holding strong on defense, Waterman got a great look in the corner but his shot just missed off the rim right into the hands of Fears, a phenomenal free throw shooter, who made 1-of-2 to make it 67-64 Sooners.

With just eight seconds left and down by a triple, Hepburn has his inbound pass tipped. There was a dust up for the ball and a jump ball was called, the Sooners retained possession. Two-straight free throws made it a five-point game once again.

As the final seconds ticked, the Sooners came out on top 64-69.

Not our night

The Sooners just looked like the more focused team today. Despite taking 17 threes compared to Louisville’s 32, the Sooners were over twice as accurate, having shot 47.1% from downtown to Louisville’s 21.9%.

The biggest key to this game for Louisville was the boards. Louisville recorded 21 offensive boards, leading to 25 second-chance points; the Cards’ offense lived on these boards as they kept them in the game.

Despite Pryor’s absence in the second half, they still gathered 44 boards, including 13 from Hadley who matched his season-high. Hadley also ended up being the leading scorer with 2 points

Hepburn, the star of this tourney, got his hands on a lot of balls late, disturbing the Sooners offense even if they didn’t convert into steals. He scored a dozen while contributing a great deal on offense and defense where the box score won’t show it.

All things considered, the Cards looked very promising this tournament. They rebounded like crazy, got the right looks and limited their mistakes when it matters the most down the stretch. Most importantly, they proved they can take teams the distance even without all of their star-power.

The Cards fall to 5-2 and are now 0-3 in Battle 4 Atlantis championships to date.

Louisville will host the Ole Miss Rebels on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics