By Charlie Leffler
Just when many fans thought the excitement in Freedom Hall could not be raised to further heights, the Cardinal basketball team, as it has done all season, caught everyone by surprise.
Louisville’s final two games were at home, but from past experience, few expected a happy end to the season. Cincinnati has proved repeatedly that it can win in the Hall over the last several seasons by defeating Louisville more soundly in the Derby City than in the Queen City.
Charlotte, on the other hand, has proved over the last several years that Louisville is their second favorite place to play. Coming into Saturday’s matchup against the Cards, 49ers coach Bobby Lutz had never lost in Freedom Hall, going 6-0 over his time with Charlotte.
Yet, as they have often proved in the past, the Cardinals stepped up to the challenge and showed that they are far removed from the past Louisville teams which allowed those statistics to occur.
On Wednesday night, Freedom Hall was rocking as the No. 4 ranked Cincinnati Bearcats came to town. A month earlier, UC had defeated the Cards by 27 points in the Queen City. Louisville was not looking for a repeat, but the game started as if it might be one. Three shots by Steve Logan, a jumper by Immanuel McElroy and a dunk by Donald Little had the Bearcats leading 8-2 three and a half minutes into the game. But after Logan called a timeout as he was falling out of bounds, the Cards appeared to come out with focus on defense.
A eight foot jumper by Joseph N’Sima was followed by a steal by Larry O’Bannon. McElroy was called for an intentional foul as he tried to prevent the freshman from breaking for the basket. O’Bannon’s two free throws were followed by four straight points by Reese Gaines to tie the game at 10.
After Logan drove the length of the court to put UC up by two at the 11:49 mark, he was called for a foul and while protesting the call, he was also called for a technical foul. In reaction, Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins benched his star player for the rest of the half.
The game stayed close, and at the 7:16 mark, Bryant Northern made a jumper to cut the Bearcat lead to 23-25. But then Cincy went on an 11-2 run over the next three minutes to pull out to a 36-25 lead with 4:35 in the half.
Yet, once again the Cards responded with a run of their own, closing out the half with a 9-2 run to cut the Cincinnati lead to 38-34 at the break.
In the second half, the Cards came out on fire offensively and played tenacious defense of Logan. A three pointer by Gaines at the 16:23 mark tied the score at 40 and a second with 12:59 left in the contest gave Louisville a 52-45 advantage.
But the Bearcats were not about to throw in the towel, and stormed back to tie the game at 58 with 7:24 to go. With 20 seconds left in the game, McElroy hit a three that closed the Louisville lead to one at 72-71. After a Cincinnati timeout, Gaines caught the Bearcats napping and brought long for a touchdown pass layup from Luke Whitehead to put the Cards back up by three. UC still had a chance with 16 seconds left, and as has happened so many times in the past, they went to their money man, Logan. But on this night, the shot would not fall. A three by Logan bounced off the rim and was rebounded by Taron Barker, who also tried one with no better result, and as the clock expired, Louisville’s Simeon Naydenov pulled in the rebound and the win.
“This was a wonderful win for our players,” said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. “They’ve been working their tails off this year putting in countless hours for a night like tonight.”
“To beat a team as good as Cincinnati, their reputation and how they’ve been playing, to come out and beat a team like that is unbelievable,” said Gaines. “I’m really happy for Ellis Myles having a coming out party like this.”
Louisville would not have pulled out the win without the outstanding interior play of Ellis Myles. A week earlier, Myles had been dogged down low and couldn’t hit a shot, but against UC the sophomore forward repeatedly backed inside and scored with a soft half hook. Myles finished the game with 18 points and 12 rebounds.
“He just got us down there so low he couldn’t help but score,” said Huggins. “He did a great job. If we don’t guard we can’t win,” said Cincinnati head coach Bob Huggins. “We’re not a very good offensive team.”
The Cards also got a boost from N’Sima, who pulled down seven rebounds and swatted three blocks in the game. “Everybody is saying, ‘Look, they’ve got no low post game,'” said Pitino. “We said BS on that, ‘you’ve got to go inside. Joseph (N’Sima) gave us a big lift with his defense at the beginning of the game.”
“I probably don’t realize now,” said N’Sima. “I knew we really had to bring it up because that’s a big time team. I’ve been confident all this week.”
But it was also the intense defense of Northern that wore down C-USA’s top player Steve Logan, forcing him into 7-22 shooting on the night. “He’s getting smarter by the minute,” said Pitino. “I kept prodding him at every time out, ‘I know you’re exhausted,’ because he didn’t get many blows tonight, ‘it’s a matter of your will.’ And his will was unbelievable tonight. Because what he had to do full court- and that’s sometimes responsible for a person missing, is when you play that full court defense. He knew he was playing a great player tonight and he played him terrific.”
“He’s (Logan) one of the best players I’ve every played against,” said Northern. “I tried to make him do some things out of his comfort zone. And it seemed like he was missing some shots. I tried to get the edge on him tonight.”
And on this night, the top player in the conference was shut down by a guy who is not even playing on scholarship. “Man, I don’t know what he’s saying,” said Northern, “he’s probably mad ’cause I know I was cheap shotting him a little bit and really getting after him. But he does the same thing cause he’s a veteran guy. I think tonight we pretty much played them like they played us at their place.”
But even the laborous defensive effort did not cause the player to show exhaustion after the game. “I’m just on a natural high right now,” said Northern, “I feel great.”
“They’re a great team and they just ran into us having a great night,” said Pitino.
And though Cincinnati suffered only its third loss of the season, the coaches do not feel that they needed a loss at this time of the season to get their players focused. “I think you’d really have to be an idiot to have to lose to learn. I think you’d have to be the dumbest SOB in the world to have to lose to learn. Why can’t you just go out and play to learn? All that stuff about, ‘Ah it’s good for us,’ what the hell is so good about it? I don’t think those guys know what they’re talking about. Maybe that’s why they lose so much.”
“In both ends, we’ve given the fans the best entertainment dollar there is in sports,” said Pitino, “and they’ve given us the best support there is in sports.”
