By Derek DeBurger

In spite of being the most shorthanded as they’ve been all season, Louisville came away victorious against the Miami Hurricanes.

The day started off strange, with Chucky Hepburn being ruled out with a groin injury suffered Wednesday against Boston College, leaving the Cards with no available point guards.

On Miami’s side, interim head coach Bill Courtney failed to travel with the team due to an illness. Forcing assistant coach Kotie Kimble to be the interim for the interim for Saturday’s game.

A street fight on Whiskey Row

Louisville opened the game with a fantastic play and pass from Terrence Edwards Jr. inside to J’Vonne Hadley for a wide open layup. Edwards was thrust into the point guard position due to injuries, and he would play a full 40 minutes in Saturday’s game.

In the pass of a Miami press, Edwards calmly continued to run the offense. He found Hadley for yet another layup, then he scored his first points followed by the first three-pointer of the game.

With a lead of 9-4, Edwards contributed to all nine points and the Canes were forced to give up their press of Edwards.

But Miami would not go away. The Canes kept battling, cutting the lead back down to two points on a score of 16-14.

Louisville then ran a great two-man game, with Noah Waterman hitting a three off of a pass from Reyne Smith, following it up the very next possession with a Smith three assisted by Waterman.

The Cards more or less held that pattern for the rest of the half. Louisville would go on a run, get a big lead then let Miami back in the game with a run of their own.

The referees also took a laissez faire approach to officiating, refusing to blow their whistles even if there was blood on the court.

In fact, James Scott was landed on by a Miami playing, slamming his head on the court and bloodying his mouth, but no whistle could be heard. James was taken to the bench, and ruled out for the rest of the game.

Miami had their own bloody situation, with Matthew Cleveland getting a bloody nose and keeping it for the duration of the game, yet no foul was called.

At the half, Louisville led 46-38.

Tight(ish) until the end

At times in the first half, Miami’s players looked dejected, as if they would rather be anywhere other than a basketball court.

That was not an issue in the second half.

Miami scored back-to-back baskets almost immediately to draw within four. Louisville would respond by pushing the lead out to where it was, but the Canes put together another run to get with one possession.

Over the next three minutes, Louisville then held Miami scoreless as they went on an 8-0 run. The run was capped off by a three from Waterman, forcing Kimble to call a timeout.

After the timeout Louisville kept rolling, pushing their lead as high as 15 points.

Yet again, Miami would cut the lead back down to five with the help of Paul Djobet and a more favorable whistle for the team from Florida.

Still, the Cards would remain calm and Smith would convert a four-point play.

From there, Edwards orchestrated the offense beautifully in the face of increased pressure. Louisville would continue to score, and Miami would be forced to foul until Louisville reached the bonus.

The Cards would close it out at the line, surviving a day without Hepburn 88-78.

A nice exercise

For what was already the most injured team in America going into Saturday’s game, the Cards were thin as could be.

At the end of the first half and the entirety of the second half, Louisville was down to just seven scholarship players and no true point guards.

In spite of the turmoil, Edwards played an incredible game. The James Madison-transfer scored a game-high 27 points and had a career-high 10 assists for his first ever double-double.

Smith finally got out of his funk, scoring 26 points on 6-of-16 shooting from three and 6-of-6 from the free throw line.

Smith was one three short of tying Kyle Kuric and Preston Knowles for the most threes made in the KFC Yum! Center by a Cardinals player.

Hadley was great as the de facto center once James exited the game, scoring 12 points with seven rebounds.

Perhaps most impressive is that Louisville won. They did not have a point guard, so style points went right out the window before tip-off. But Edwards showed he can run the offense for a prolonged period of time (albeit against lesser talent), and for the production to remain mostly steady.

Khani Rooths is another player that looked great, especially compared to where he was earlier in the season. The lone freshman on the roster scored nine points and helped out a ton on defense, as well. Perhaps what was most impressive about Rooths’ performance was that he picked up four fouls, but remained aggressive on defense without fouling out.

Given all the circumstances, this is a great, promising win.

Louisville is now 18-6 on the season and 11-2 in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Nicole Finch, Louisville Athletics