Louisville Basketball: Willard Leads Terps to a Blowout Win

Louisville continued their struggles with a 79-54 loss to Maryland. The former ACC school dominated the game throughout.

Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.

Part of the struggles early in the season have been the large amount of turnovers in games. Louisville had its lowest number of turnovers this year with 13 . The first ten minutes of the game the Cardinals struggled to find their rhythm with five turnovers.

Turnovers started with Brandon Huntley-Hatfield and Jae’Lyn Withers, then spread to the rest of the team resulting in five separate players having turnovers in the opening minutes. Maryland took advantage with the turnovers and took a 23-10 lead in the first ten minutes of the game.

The Cardinals fought back after this and limited the Terrapins to three points in the next five minutes of play. El Ellis and Hercy Miller led the offense during this stretch and cut the deficit to nine narrowing the score to 26-17 with close to five minutes left in the first half. The team only had one turnover during this stretch.

Maryland closed the half with an 11 point lead with the score set at 37-26. Maryland took the lead by scoring 11 points off of turnovers in the first half.

JJ Traynor ignited the second half with a dunk off an in-bound pass. But, this spark was diffused rather quickly due to the Terrapins hitting four threes in the first five minutes of the second half. Maryland’s run led to a 54-35 lead with 15 minutes left in the game.

Maryland’s Head Coach Kevin Willard took most of his starters out, but Louiaville still couldn’t find a rhythm against their reserves. Until, Mike James made a basket along with the freshman Devin Ree to make the score 61-39. The Cardinals offense continued to struggle to score until all of the reserves came in for Maryland at the five minute mark in the second half.

In the closing minutes, Louisville fans watched reserve players, who haven’t had many minutes throughout the year, have more success scoring compared to the starters. Fabio Basili and Devin Ree would be the players that stood out the most and will have questions arise on playing time. Basili ended with six points in eight minutes and Devin Ree scored five with 12 minutes to end the game.

Terrapins Coach Kevin Willard walked out of the Yum Center with a win against the Cardinals with a final score of 79-54. The theme of the loss continues to be turnovers and scoring droughts. For those that watch the game on Sunday, the Cardinals open conference play against Miami. Louisville fans will continue to hold their breath until they reach their first win.