The Louisville Cardinals regained their defensive Mojo to smother the Pitt Panthers most of the game, and a second-half offensive burst sent them on their way to a 59-41 victory, their finest victory of the season. It’s the fifth time this season the Cards have limited an opponent to less than 30 percent shooting.
Rarely is a basketball team held to half of its scoring average. But it happened to Pitt last night. The Panthers came into the game the No. 9 scoring team in the nation at 85.3 points per game, but scored fewer than 30 points in each half in their second defeat of the season.
Pitt watched its 10-game winning streak snapped; the game was their worst outing of the season.
It wasn’t pretty, unless you’re a big fan of defense. Coach Rick Pitino is. “I feel like my long-lost best friend came back tonight,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for a long time to see defense like that.”
Louisville played their usual switching defense, from zone to man-to-man, but mainly stayed in man-to-man and played outstanding help defense. The Cards rediscovered the pesky, menacing, deflection-based style that has led them to success in past seasons, grabbing 10 steals and forcing more turnovers (19) than Pitt had made baskets (14).
“We kept taking guarded shots, but we were the team that did that tonight,” Pitt coach Jamie Dixon said. “For whatever reason, we didn’t play tonight they way we have been. It happens.”
Chinanu Onuaku was dominant in the paint. He repeatedly rotated over to close the middle on defense, causing Pitt headaches trying to get easy points down low. Nanu finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds, and went 4 of 5 from the free-throw line.
Louisville had another ugly shooting performance. They were just 1 of 11 from three-point range, but didn’t panic. They stuck with defense, and waited for their run (midway through the first half), and once again early in the second half. Pittsburgh shot just 28.6 percent in the game, and despite shooting nearly 80 percent from the free-throw line, No. 1 in the nation coming into the game, they made just 12 of 20 (60 percent) from the line. Louisville went 16 of 19 (84.2 percent).
“I didn’t yell at them after the loss,” Pitino said. “But I told them, if your identity is to outshoot them, you’ll make the tournament, but you won’t get past the first weekend.”
Louisville’s graduate transfers couldn’t buy a basket — but they didn’t try to force shots, and both played far better defense than they did Sunday at Clemson. Late in the game, Damion Lee found his shots, took the ball strong the basket to get fouled, and was as the Cards’ co-leading scorer with 18 points; largely by going 8 of 9 from the free-throw line.
The Cardinals outscored Pittsburgh 21-9 on second-chance points, and 34-20 in the paint. They blocked six shots and dished out 11 assists to only four for Pitt.
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