Louisville basketball: Cards withstand sting from Yellow Jackets in win

Louisville basketball got down early, fought back in the second half, and blew a lead all on the way to a key ACC victory.

After pulling off the upset against no. 3 Duke on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium, I wanted to see how Louisville basketball could sustain success. Part of big wins is being able to put it behind you, just as much as a bad loss, and move on to the next game with the same level of intensity.

As friend of the site Chris Hatfield pointed out tonight on Twitter, Louisville had won the first 10 minute segments in each of their last three games – a huge reason for their three-game winning streak. Tonight they didn’t do that, and it forced the Cards to play from behind for the majority of the first half.

Georgia Tech was a below mediocre shooting team coming into the game with Louisville, shooting 45 percent from the floor and a putrid 29 percent from three. It didn’t matter early on as the Yellow Jackets were hot to start, hitting nine of their first 13 shots and really forcing the Cards to work hard for offense with their 2-3 zone/man hybrid defense.

Louisville’s offense struggled while allowing the Yellow Jackets to shoot 62 percent from the field, doing so mainly inside the paint, a supposed strength for the Cards. Moses Wright and James Banks made things extremely difficult on one end and provided the interior scoring that propelled the team forward along with 11 points from guard Jose Alvarado.

The lead got up to 10 quickly in the second half while Georgia Tech gained a crucial 24-19 rebound advantage. It was the little details of the game that showed Louisville’s struggle with attention to detail as they gave up the advantage on the boards while also shooting just four of nine from the free-throw line through the first eight minutes of the second half.

Louisville thankfully found a way to get things turned back around, something we’ve seen far too many times this season. They did it on the back of the Duke hero, David Johnson. Even recovering from a bum shoulder, Johnson found ways to impact the game on both sides of the ball in big and small ways. Whether it was getting to the basket one-on-one, intercepting a pass on defense, or getting lose balls, Johnson once again gave the Cards a boost before picking up fourth foul and exiting to the bench.

The Cards would continue to will themselves back into the game with Johnson on the bench. Even with continued poor free-throw shooting Louisville would go on a 13-2 run on way to regaining the lead for the first time since being up 11-10 at the 15:23 mark in the first half.

Just when it looked like Louisville had put things away going up by 11, they did that thing they do again; blow a lead. The Cards allowed Georgia Tech to tie the game with a minute remaining as the Cards just watched things get out of hand.

It came down to the final few possessions as Michael Devoe missed a good look from three before Malik Williams put the game away with free throws.

A win is a win, but Louisville struggled to put away a team that played just seven players compared to the Cards 10. The intensity following the first few minutes of the game wasn’t the same until the lead was regained in the second half and Louisville got out to the double-digit lead, before putting it back into neutral and letting a sneaky good team hang around.

MVP: I really don’t know if anyone played well enough in this game for Louisville to be the MVP, but for the sake of impact I would go with Malik Williams. His contributions down the stretch of the game on both offense and defense were a huge part of Louisville getting the lead as well as closing out a game that shouldn’t have been that close.

He once again got the majority of minutes at the five, especially at the end of the game, mostly due to his defense. Williams finished with 13 points, six rebounds while hitting seven of 12 free throws. He brought the energy to battle against Moses Wright and James Banks and did just enough to help the Cards sneak out a victory.

Without his impact in the second half, Louisville loses this game.

X-factor: Louisville’s bench gave them the extra push needed tonight to take care of Georgia Tech. David Johnson once again gave Chris Mack really good play, doing his part to keep them in the game early on, while Williams, as mentioned, carried the Cards to the end.

Samuell Williamson was able to hit a few shots throughout the game while securing multiple key offensive rebounds while Ryan McMahon pitched in all over the place even while not scoring.

Georgia Tech was depleted and there was no they were going to be able to withstand 40 minutes of fresh bodies. Mack did a great job of rotating his bench in and maneuvering the lineups with David Johnson in foul trouble and Williams providing more defensive capabilities down the stretch.

Defining moment: How about a lack of a moment for Jordan Nwora. Following his hot start in the first half, Louisville’s star junior wing disappeared going three of 11 overall and two of four from three. Like we’ve seen in games past when things started to go array for Nwora on the offensive end the rest of his game was impacted in a negative way. When Louisville was down you just kept hoping that Nwora was going to get the look or break way fast-break dunk that would get him the rhythm he needed. That unfortunately never happened.

Louisville once again won despite poor play from Nwora (I’m aware he finished with 10 and seven) and while I normally wouldn’t be concerned his inability to provide impact when he’s not scoring is not a good look long-term.

What a win means for Louisville: We continue to see over and over again that this team’s mental makeup isn’t where it needs to be when they aren’t forced to be at their best. Through parts of the first half and when they had a double-digit lead in the second half they took their foot of the gas and gave less than minimal effort. It impacted the battle on the boards, the quality of Louisville’s shot attempts, and their overall intensity.

Against a short-handed and already fairly average Georgia Tech team it was enough, but on other nights I can guarantee that won’t always be the case. Somehow Chris Mack has to figure out how to get through to his team with the message that playing with the same intensity for 40 minutes is how you win at the highest level. Anything else will get you sent home early.

Louisville will carry a five-game winning streak into a battle with a Clemson team that should have a significant amount of confidence considering their recent upsets of Duke and North Carolina. We saw a lethargic effort against the Tigers in a game that was a last-second blocked shot away from being a disastrous loss last season and the same type of effort could result in the opposite out come this year.