Louisville Rallies Over Miami For First Road Win in Two Seasons

Louisville basketball has been in a bit of a dark stretch recently, as they have lost 6 of their past 7 games, with the last 3 games being decided by 13 points or more. However, they had been fighting in these games. Louisville has shown spurts of good basketball against Kentucky, Virginia, and especially Pitt. The lack of consistency is what has plagued the Cardinals.

The Cardinals beat Miami with consistency and good basketball.

Louisville rallied to defeat the Miami Hurricanes 80-71, in a game that seemed to be impossible to win. Miami ended up as -16.5 point favorites, with home-court advantage, and before losing to Wake Forest on Saturday, they had won 4 in a row, including #16 Clemson.

Miami was up 57-50 with under 12 minutes to go in the 2nd half, and that was the type of moment that Louisville would usually falter and give up. There were plenty of moments like that in the 1st half too. However, to the Cardinal's credit, they always rallied and eventually went on a 9-0 run to end the game against the Hurricanes.

Louisville was very effective offensively as they shot 49.% from the field and 43.5% from three. They had 17 assists on 28 made field goals, and the half-court offense was as good as it has looked all season long.

The only big worry about this game was that Louisville still had 13 turnovers, but they also turned Miami over 12 times, so maybe the turnovers can be salvaged if the Cardinal defense can play better.

This was a great win for Louisville and Kenny Payne, as it showed they can put together a good 40 minutes of basketball, and that is something they haven't been able to do in the past 2 seasons against good competition. Miami is a good basketball team, and the fact that Payne was able to will his team to a win is impressive, at least compared to what he had done in the past.

Louisville will play NC State in the Yum Center on Saturday afternoon, and a win against the Wolfpack would certainly help Payne in his bid to win back Louisville fans. Only time will tell if this was a fluke win, or something that the team will build on for the rest of the season.