By Catherine Laroche

Twenty-thousand plus fans piled into Freedom Hall Saturday to witness the University of Louisville men’s basketball team receive their biggest win of the season over the University of Georgetown.

The Cardinals snapped No. 6 Georgetown’s six-game winning streak 59-51 in front of the fourth largest crowd in Freedom Hall history. ESPN’s GameDay crew, sideline reporter Erin Andrews and analyst Dick Vitale also joined the crowd for the highly anticipated event.

However, it wasn’t a smooth-sailing victory for the Cards throughout the entire game. The Cardinals had 10 turnovers, along with an aggressive Georgetown defense and the Hoyas’ senior star center Roy Hibbert that sent the Cardinals into the locker room trailing 31-23 at the half.

After going down 10 in the first 30 seconds of the second half, U of L head coach Rick Pitino called a time-out in hopes of making a few adjustments.

“I just told them to play it possession by possession, play great defense,” Pitino said. “As long as you play great defense, you’ll always have a chance. We turned up the pressure in our press and that helped.”

Just like Pitino changed from a stunning white suit to the complete opposite black suit for the second half, the Cards changed their performance from sloppy to smart.

A couple of runs in the lane from junior forward Terrence Williams and two consecutive 3-pointers from sophomore guard Jerry Smith paced the Cards on an 11-0 run to take a 44-37 lead with 9:24 to play.

Two free throws from senior center David Padgett and a 3-pointer from sophomore forward Earl Clark helped the Cards get their biggest lead of the game at 10 with 1:34 remaining.

Georgetown made one last attempt by cutting the lead to five within the final minute, but late free throws from Padgett sealed the win for the Cards.

U of L held Georgetown to 34.8 percent shooting in the second half, including only 4-of-22 from 3-point range. Padgett recorded a game-high 18 points to lead the Cards. Sophomore guard Jerry Smith added 16 points as the only other Cardinal in double figures.

The Cards converted 18-of-24 shots from the free-throw line, while Georgetown was only 3-of-4.

“We were able to get stops down the stretch,” Smith said. “It was a huge win for us. It lets us know if we work hard, we can become a Final Four team like they were last year.”

With this win, the Cards secured third place in the Big East, one-half game behind the University of Notre Dame (18-4, 8-2) and a game behind Georgetown (19-3, 9-2). Rounding out the top five in the Big East are the University of Connecticut (18-5, 7-3) and the University of Pittsburgh (18-5, 6-4), behind the Cards (18-6, 8-3).

The win over Georgetown means more than just rankings to U of L students.

“It was the best U of L basketball game I’ve ever been to,” sophomore biology major Joe Stith said. “That’s the most I’ve ever seen the crowd into the game. That victory brings a lot of recognition to the school.”