Louisville basketball lost to North Carolina last night, 77-74, after the Cardinals were able to scrap their way back after being down by as much as 16 points in the second half. Pat Kelsey emphasized that there are no moral victories in college basketball, but he was glad to see his team didn’t quit and showed a lot of fight.
When fans watched the game last night, there were 12 minutes that really stood out as the Cardinals struggled mightily in this stretch. Louisville played the Tar Heels close in the first half, even leading 23-13 at one point, and went to the half down just one point, 39-38.
However, the beginning of the second half was an absolute disaster, and Kelsey made sure to emphasize that something has to be fixed moving forward.
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Pat Kelsey makes it clear Louisville has to be better in one crucial area
After the Cardinals trailed just 39-38 to open the second half, Louisville didn’t hit a single field goal for the first seven minutes of the half after they went 0-10 from the field, including 0-5 from beyond the arc. Louisville’s first bucket in the second half was from Ryan Conwell at the 13-minute mark, and in those first seven minutes, UNC went 7-of-13 from the field, including 3-of-6 from the 3-point line.
During this stretch, the Tar Heels went up 16 points, and Louisville wouldn’t get it back to single digits until the 11:33 mark. Kelsey talked about the second-half struggles after the game and said his team has to respond better and change something.
“When things don’t go your way as an individual, and as a team, you have a choice of how you respond, and we need to respond better,” Kelsey stated on the Cardinals' early second-half struggles. “You've got to have that resolve to respond with toughness, and it just took us too long to do that. I think we finally flipped that switch, like I said, at that eight-minute mark. Why it was like that for that 10-minute stretch in the second half, I’m not sure, but it is something we've got to fix.”
Louisville brought the game within single digits, and the Cardinals went on a run of their own in the final eight minutes as they continued to fight and keep it close. Louisville got a big spark from Vangelis Zougris, who added physicality and height, and Conwell began to take over for the Cards, finishing with23 points.
The Cardinals fall to 20-8 on the season, and on the road against ranked teams, they are now 0-4. Also worth noting is that Louisville is now 0-6 against current ranked teams.
The regular season has just three games remaining before the ACC Tournament starts on March 10, and if the Cardinals want to make a run in the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, they have to find a way to respond better against these top 25 teams, or it could be another short postseason run like last year.
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