| Game Summary: St. Louis | Score: St. Louis 72, Louisville 51 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marques Maybin (20) St. Louis: Maurice Jeffers, Matt Baniak, Marque Perry (13) |
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| Poof! Just like that, the momentum and positive energy surrounding the Cards disappeared against St. Louis, as the Cards not only lost their second game in a row, but got trounced badly in not even looking like they knew how to run their offense. The Cards were dominated, and facts and figures on this season are starting to confirm this as the worst Cardinal year ever. |
| U of L didn't score its first field goal until five and half minutes into the game, but the Cards were still in it, trailing only 7-4. But their offensive woes continued throughout the half, and even the game (the Cards shot only 32% from the field). With 3:50 left in the opening period, the Cards trailed 25-16, but a 9-2 run helped pull the Cards to within 27-25 at the half. After an Erik Brown jumper pulled U of L to within 31-29 with 17:41 to play, the Cards went on another of their notorious droughts, scoring only field goal in the next 7:05 as the Billikens built their lead to 10. Marques Maybin, who led all scorers with 20 points and was the only Cardinal in double figures (though he shot a woeful 7-23 from the field) scored U of L's next 13 points, and the Cards were still in striking distance, down 49-42. One look at the final score, though, will tell you it was St. Louis who struck, and they did it with defense. They used a stifling man-to-man defense that forced the Cards into another 3 and a half minute drought, as SLU pounded the ball inside on the other end of the court. The Billikens scored 16 of their final 20 points from the free throw line, and outscored U of L from the line 27-12. SLU scored only nine field goals in the second half. |
The Cards shot only 3-18 from three-point range, and amazingly, outrebounded SLU 35-32 (Joseph N'Sima had 10 rebounds, plus four blocked shots, for U of L.) Before this season, U of L had lost only four home games by 20 points or more in the last eight years. This loss marked the fourth such defeat this season. One more loss by this squad eliminates the possibility of having a winning record, but we guess that was a foregone conclusion. Furthermore, with five conference losses, despite the parity in C-USA this year, any chances of doing something special in the conference have now evaporated.  |
| Game Summary: Marquette | Score: Louisville 75, Marquette 65 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Rashad Brooks (14) Marquette: Cordell Henry, Oluoma Nnamaka (19) |
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| It was a fantastic game for the Cards, who made a determined defensive effort and comeback in the second half to win a nationally televised game against the Golden Eagles. Like the DePaul win, the Cards played for a full 40 minutes, did not give up, and came out with a win. Marquette led throughout the first half, but a baseline jumper from Ellis Myles and two free throws from Rashad Brooks, who led the Cards with 14 points, pulled the Cards to within 32-29. Cordell Henry, who co-led Marquette with 19 points, hit one of his three three-pointers of the first half with 1:29 left in the first half to give the visitors a six-point lead. Oluama Nnamaka, who also had 19 for Marquette on 7-14 shooting to go along with seven rebounds, made two free throws, Jon Harris hit two more free throws, and then the Cards' Bryant Northern sand a free throw for the final margin of the first half, after which Marquette led 39-30. |
| But then the Cards put on a defensive effort unlike any they've shown so far this year. Marquette had actually led C-USA in opponents' scoring average, but it was the Cards who put the clamps on. The Golden Eagles missed their first five shots of the second half, while U of L scored the first six to open the second period. Reece Gaines, who scored four of those six, then hit a three to pull U of L to within 41-39. U of L had three chances to take the lead or tie, but failed each time; Marquette then re-extended its lead to eight. It was then that U of L refused to give up. After the Cards tied the score at 55, Rashad Brooks scored a three-point play on a break-away lay-up after a steal. It was a lead the Cards would not relinquish. At the 3:16 mark, Brooks hit a three, then scored on another drive the next trip down the floor. The Cards led 66-60 with 2:40 left. The lead was 69-60 with only 39 seconds left when Marquette's Brian Wardle hit two free throws. Wardle had been Marquette's leading scorer, but was held to 13 points on 3-13 shooting. (He was hampered by a knee injury suffered earlier in the week.) Gaines scored inside 16 seconds later, Henry hit on another three, then the Cards sealed the game by making four free throws. |
| The numbers were absolutely glowing for the Cards. For one, U of L shot an amazing 23-29 from the free throw line for 79%. That stat quite possibly secured the game for U of L. The Cards also ourtebounded Marquette 37-34, though the Golden Eagles do not have a significant big man. The Cards shot 56% in the second half, but more impressively held Marquette to only 24% shooting in the second half and 34% for the game. The Cards blocked a season-high nine blocked shots, four by Joseph N'Sima. And, for only the second time this season, the Cardinals put five players into double figures: Brooks, Muhammed Lasege, who had a career-high 12 points on 4-6 shooting from the field and 4-4 from the line, Marques Maybin with 12, who shot only 2-9 from the field but 7-8 from the line to go with seven very critical rebounds, Reece Gaines (11) and Erik Brown (11). |
| Game Summary: Charlotte | Score: Charlotte 106, Louisville 72 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Erik Brown (16) Charlotte: Rodney White (26) |
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| Even in this year of disastrous losses, this one against the Charlotte 49ers set, or at least matched, an all-time low. Literally. The 106-72 drubbing to Charlotte matched the worst loss in Denny Crum's coaching career (the Big Brother loss, 85-51 to UK on Dec. 27, 1986, was an equal 34-point whipping). It was also the second-most points the Cards have ever allowed; only in a 117-107 win over Illinois State on March 5, 1974 have the Cards ever been so weak defensively. Charlotte has now won four straight games against the Cards in Freedom Hall, and eight of its last 10 against U of L. |
| If there's an excuse to be had, it is the fact Charlotte was playing for the first time in a week, while the Cards were coming off their emotional second half comeback win over Marquette last Thursday night. Still, don't blame the schedule-makers that Charlotte outplayed the Cards in every single way. The 49ers shot 61.4% for the game, including 22-29 for 75% in the second half. Ther 49ers were 11-28 from three-point range, which allowed Charlotte to really pile it on. Charlotte was led by freshman Rodney White, who had 26 points on 12-17 shooting to go with nine rebounds. Guard Jobey Thomas made 5-7 from three-point range to finish with 15 points, while guard Demon Brown had eight assists. Charlotte had a season-high 24 assists, outrebounded U of L 41-37 and scored 20 points off of 19 U of L turnovers. The Cards tied a school-record in losing its eighth game in Freedom Hall this season. |
| U of L starters combined for a miserable 29 points, and played most of the second half without Marques Maybin, who left the game due to a bruised chest after receiving an elbow from Thomas. Maybin finished the game with a season-low four points and also had six turnovers. Erik Brown led the Cards with 16 points on 6-13 shooting with seven rebounds, while Reece Gaines had 15 and Ellis Myles had his best game, statistically, of the season: Myles scored 15 points on 6-7 shooting in only 18 minutes of action. Charlotte led 15-11 when it put the game out of reach. An 11-2 run started things off as Charlotte ballooned its lead to 51-31 at the half. Just six minutes into the second half, the 49ers led by 34, 73-39, and the Cards got no closer than 20 the rest of the way. |
| Game Summary: DePaul | Score: Louisville 71, DePaul 62 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marques Maybin, Rashad Brooks (17) DePaul: Bobby Simmons (17) |
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| The Cardinals rebounded from one of their worst losses in history against the one team that hasn't been able to take advantage of the Cards' struggles this year, the DePaul Blue Demons. U of L beat DePaul for the tenth straight time, outscoring the Blue Demons 19-4 in the final five minutes to pull out the victory. Rashad Brooks paced the Cards in scoring a career-high 17 points. |
| DePaul made four of its first six shots to take an early 8-4 lead, as U of L made only one of its first 11 shots and committed six turnovers in the next 8:46 to fall behind 18-6. Brooks came in and virtually saved U of L. His two free throws pulled U of L to within 18-10 at the 9:04 mark of the first half, then scored on a three-point play off a dunk to pull the Cards to 18-13. U of L cut the lead to one after a Reece Gaines dunk that came after a steal by Brooks. But DePaul then went on a 9-0 run that extended their lead to 27-17 with 3:13 left in the period. The Cards scored the final six points of the half to trail 31-25 at halftime. |
| The teams switched offensive effeciency in the second half: the Cards shot only 32% in the first period, but 60% in the second, while DePaul made 50% in the first half but only 31% in the second. After four straight points from Ellis Myles, the Cards led 43-39 with 12:20 left in the game. But a 19-9 DePaul run, in which DePaul scored on nine of 11 possessions, allowed the Blue Demons to take a 58-52 lead with 5:10 left. But then the Cards played some defense, allowing only one more field goal the rest of the way. Erik Brown, who had 10 points in the last six minutes, hit two free throws, then caused a DePaul turnover that led to a Reece Gaines three-pointer to cut the deficit to 58-57. Marques Maybin hit a jumper to pull U of L ahead, and a drive by Brown gave U of L a 61-58 lead. After a DePaul free throw, Gaines scored a huge putback off a fast break after a Brown miss that put U of L up 63-59 with 1:05 left. Brooks then got a steal and hit two free throws to give U of L a six-point lead with 42.5 seconds left. DePaul's Rashan Burno hit a three to cut U of L's lead to 65-62, but center Muhammed Lasege made two key free throws with 29 seconds left, his only points of the game, to wrap it up. Brown added an exclamation dunk for the final score. |
| U of L shot 18-23 from the line and outrebounded DePaul 39-35. |
| Game Summary: Utah | Score: Utah 84, Louisville 67 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marques Maybin (13) Utah: Phil Cullen (16) |
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| U of L continued its see-saw performance nature of this year, coming off an inspring victory at DePaul only to throw up another clunker, this time at Utah. From the start, the Cards were never in the game, and were lucky to lose by only 17. Utah shot 74% in the first half, and 59% for the game, while the Cards could not buy a hoop. The Cards finished the game shooting 37% from the field. |
| Utah's Phil Cullen led all scorers with 16 points by going 4-5 from three-point range, while guard Nick Jacobson finished with 15 points while shooting 5-5 from the field, including three three-pointers, and 2-2 from the line. Utah's big men posed serious problems for U of L, as center Chris Burgess had 14 points and forward Britton Johnsen had 11 points and seven rebounds. Utah outrebounded the Cards 43-35. Marques Maybin led the Cards with a paltry 13 points, but fouled out with over seven minutes left in the game. Utah made 11 of its first 14 shots to take a 31-11 lead with 7:37 left in the first half. Utah led 47-25 at the half by outrebounding the Cards 23-8 in the opening period. It was a total thrashing, and the Cards were never in it. |
| Even in missing eight of their last 10 shots to finish at 43.5% shooting in the second half, Utah finished with 59% shooting for the game. The Utes outscored U of L 32-18 in the paint and made 21 free throws compared to the Cards' six. After missing his first four shots, Muhammed Lasege made five of his last seven to finish with 10 points. Reece Gaines and Bryant Northern also scored 10 points each for the Cards. |
| Game Summary: Charlotte | Score: Charlotte 74, Louisville 68 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marques Maybin (22) Charlotte: Jobey Thomas (25) |
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| Despite losing its fifth game in its last seven this season, and its fifth in its last six to Charlotte, the Cards still gained a little respect back from the 34-point thrashing they suffered against the 49ers in Freedom Hall earlier this month.. The Cards even led midway through the second period, but were unable to contain Charlotte's Jobey Thomas, who in leading all scorers with 25 points on 7-13 shooting from three-point range, destroyed the Cards effots to contain the 49ers with a 2-3 zone instead of a man-to-man defense. Outside of Thomas, Charlotte shot only 2-12 from behind the arc. |
| As the game opened, it looked like the first game was still going on. Charlotte raced out to a 12-3 lead, but then the Cards, who missed six of their first seven shots, went on a 23-6 run that propelled U of L to a 26-18 lead. Marques Maybin and Erik Brown combined for 15 of those points. Brown, who matched a career-high with 20 points on 8-12 shooting, including 3-5 from three-point range, scored 18 of his points in only 13 minutes of action in the first half. Maybin himself, who led U of L with 22 points, shot 5-11 from the field in the first half and had 15 points by halftime. When U of L led 41-37 at the half, Maybin and Brown had combined for 33 of the Cards' points. Charlotte, on the other hand, was paced by Thomas. He hit 5-9 threes in the first half and had 17 points in the opening frame. The Cards also held a 25-13 rebounding edge at the break. |
| The Cards led 51-50 before Jobey Thomas gave Charlotte the lead back on a three-pointer with 11 minutes left to play. Thomas hit another three a few moments later to give the 49ers a 56-53 lead. With 6:09 left Charlotte held a 62-55 lead, but the Cards tried to fight back. U of L pulled to within 65-63, but after a missed free throw by Ellis Myles, the Cards got no closer from the 3:52 mark on. U of L switched to a man-to-man defense with six minutes left, and were consequently torn up by Rodney White, who leads all freshmen nationally in scoring (he scored 26 against the Cards in the first meeting). He finished this game with 19 points and nine rebounds, scoring several baskets in the game's last six minutes. A James Zimmerman lay-up with 1:14 to go gave the 49ers a 72-65 lead, then a missed three-pointer by Bryant Northern and follow-up by Reece Gaines left U of L unable to come back with less than a minute to go. The Cards finished the game with a 43-30 lead on the boards. Ellis Myles had eight rebounds and five assists in only 20 minutes of action. |
| Game Summary: Marquette | Score: Louisville 77, Marquette 74 (3ot) |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Marques Maybin (22) Marquette: Brian Wardle (24) |
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| In what may prove to be Coach Denny Crum's final road game of his career, he won his first triple overtime game. The Cards went into triple overtime for the first time since 1966, and continued its heated series with the Marquette Golden Eagles. The two teams have met 11 times since 1984: eight games have been decided by five points or less and/or gone into overtime. There have been two single-overtime games in that period, one double overtime and now a triple overtime. The Cards improved to 3-0 in overtime this season. |
| Unfortunately, the first part of the game was not nearly as exciting. On Senior Night at Marquette, the Cards did not score until after the first TV timeout, but were able to grab a 12-11 lead midway through the first period. The first half saw three lead changes and three ties. Marquette's John Harris scored the last two baskets of the first half on tip-ins to give the Golden Eagles a 24-20 halftime lead. It was the lowest first half output by a U of L opponent this year, and the Cards' own second-lowest first half scoring performance of the year. |
| Neither team led by more than seven throughout the contest, and it looked like Marquette had the edge at the end of regulation. Oluama Nnamaka's tip-in with 1:37 left gave Marquette a 55-50 lead, but Reece Gaines hit a jumper with 1:08 left to pull the Cards within 55-52. Brian Wardle then committed a costly turnover for Marquette, and Marques Maybin, who led U of L with 22 points but fouled out in the second overtime, hit a deep three-pointer at the top of the key to tie the game at 55 with 44 seconds remaining. At the end of the first overtime, it was the Cards who squandered a lead. U of L led by five with only 29 seconds remaining, but could not put Marquette away. Maybin had two free throws with 15 seconds left, with U of L leading 65-63. But Joseph N'Sima, who led all players with 10 huge rebounds, committed a lane violation, and Maybin was never allowed the first free throw. Maybin, who finished 5-7 from the line, missed the second, and Cordell Henry hit a short jumper to tie the game for Marquette. Gaines missed a last-second shot attempt, and the game went into double-overtime. |
| Maybin fouled out with 2:27 left in the second overtime, but Gaines gave the Cards a 70-69 lead with 32 seconds left before fouling Henry. Henry made one of two free throws to tie the game at 70, then Gaines again was not able to be the hero as he lost his footing while trying to get a shot off, which he never did. With Maybin, and N'Sima out of the game, the Cards turned to Erik Brown for help. Brown hit a jumper with 33.6 seconds left in the third overtime to give U of L a 76-74 lead. He then rebounded a miss by Henry, was fouled, and made one of two free throws. Marquette inbounded the ball and was immediately fouled by Bryant Northern (who had committed a terrible foul towards the end of the first overtime). Crum instructed Northern to foul this time, though he did it a few seconds too soon. At any rate, Cordell Henry missed the first shot, then had to miss the second one on purpose. Marquette was able to get the ball back after a scramble and loose ball tie-up gave possession to the Golden Eagles. Brian Wardle missed a three-pointer with .5 seconds left, and the Cards escaped victorious. A scuffle nearly broke out after the Wardle miss, but the players were separated before things came to blows. |
| Wardle led all players with 24 points, but did so on only 6-23 shooting from the field. Marquette won the rebounding battle 44-41, and U of L committed 19 turnovers to Marquette's 15. Gaines, who had 13 points, committed five of the Cards' turnovers. Brown finished with 15 points for U of L on 7-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds. Ellis Myles had another good game, scoring 11 points on 3-4 shooting from the field, 5-6 from the line and six rebounds. |
| Game Summary: UAB | Score: UAB 74, Louisville 57 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Reece Gaines (17) UAB: LeAndrew Bass (21) |
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| So much for a run on the way to the conference tournament. Coming off an exciting and apparently quite exhausting triple-overtime win at Marquette a few days ago, the Cards put up another dud in Freedom Hall. The loss was U of L's ninth at the Hall this season, a school-record. |
| Pretty much from the get-go it was a flop for the Cards. The Blazers made four of their first six shots to grab a quick 10-6 lead. After the Cards then went three and a half minutes without scoring, UAB's lead had stretched to 19-10 with 11:40 left in the first half. LeAndrew Bass, who led all scorers with 21 points, had two baskets in a row to give UAB a 31-21 lead with 4:38 left in the first period. U of L did score six straight points to keep the game close, but the Blazers led 38-29 at the half. UAB beat the Cards in second-chance points during the first half by a 13-5 margin. For the game, UAB was outrebounded 44-39 by the Cards. |
| UAB scored the first six straight points to open the second half on two three-pointers. The Cards trailed by 11 with 11:26 left in the game, and then the floor dropped out. U of L missed 11 of its next 12 shots, went 6:19 without scoring and UAB was in cruise control to win for the first time ever in Freedom Hall. The Cards shot a woeful 30.5% from the field for the game; they also clanked 9-18 from the line. Reece Gaines led the Cards with 17 points on 7-13 shooting, but U of L simply couldn't shoot the ball. The Cards made only 4-25 three-point attempts. |
