By Derek DeBurger

Louisville takes one on the chin to the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels at home.

The loss comes as the cherry on top to the recent injury news of Kasean Pryor and Koren Johnson.

Still fighting

Louisville started the game with a fire under them, getting the opening bucket off a Reyne Smith layup.

Louisville kept pace with the Rebels, fighting hard and winning the battle on the glass. However, in spite of second- and third-chance looks, Louisville continued to miss wide open shots. Louisville missed their first 12 three-point attempts, but still remained in the game.

After falling behind 12 points on a 10-2 Ole Miss run, the Cards cut the lead to just six points multiple times.

Louisville stayed alive to end the half, only trailing 31-38.

There go the wheels

The Cards were able to quickly cut into the deficit in the first two minutes of the second half. A Terrence Edwards Jr. three brought the hole to just five points, and gave life to a hungry crowd.

But that was the final hurrah, as the Rebels jumped back out to arm’s length and then some on an 18-4 run.

The Cards tried to fight back, but they just simply did not have the firepower. Louisville missed open three after open three, all while giving up the ball on lazy passing leading to breakaway layups and dunks.

Ole Miss finished the game with 15 points off of turnovers and 10 fastbreak points, with the vast majority of them coming in the second half.

Before the clock knew it, the game was over.

Louisville lost 63-86.

Readjusting expectations

As bleak as it is, this loss isn’t the end of the world. Louisville was competitive for most of the game while only shooting a terrible 16.7% from deep. The shots mostly came on open to wide open looks, so you have to imagine the law of averages will kick in at some point.

But if the Cards can’t get going from three at some point, it will only exacerbate their offensive woes.

While the night wasn’t all negative, it’s hard to avoid the obvious.

The absence of Pryor and Johnson were glaring and concerning.

Chucky Hepburn continued to be aggressive like he was in the Battle 4 Atlantis, leading all scorers with 19 points, but without someone to take the pressure off of him he was rendered effective but inefficient.

J’Vonne Hadley and Edwards Jr. needed to step up and solidify themselves as the clear second and third options on offense, and they just couldn’t.

Hadley had 12 points on just eight attempts, and Edwards Jr. only scored eight on 13 attempts.

The season isn’t over, Louisville can still make the NCAA tournament, but they need to fix their problems now.

Louisville falls to 5-3 after their second straight loss.

Photo by Alex Woodard