| Date: Jan. 4, 2003 | Score: Louisville 72, Ohio State 64 (ot) |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Bryant Northern (18) Ohio State: Brent Darby (24) |
| Many wondered how U of L would respond in this game against Ohio State, especially after the big win over UK and playing in Columbus, where the Buckeyes had been undefeated so far this year. There were two answers: the first one was awful, the second was determined and feisty and tough. In falling behind by as many as 18 points, U of L made only six shots in the first half. The Cards endured scoring droughts of nine minutes and four minutes in what was easily their worst display of basketball this year. With three minutes to play in the first half, Ellis Myles was 3-4 from the field; the rest of the Cardinals were 0-18. After Myles put the Cards up 2-0 with a hoop within the game's first minute, the Cards didn't make another field goal until Myles hit again with 9:46 left in the half. U of L trailed only 13-5 at that point, but after they failed to score over the next four minutes, things got considerably worse. Ohio State went up 18-5, then took their biggest lead at 26-8 with 4:12 to play in the opening period. At that point, Myles was the only U of L player to have scored. The Cards were able to trim the lead a little bit by getting a three-pointer each from Simeon Naydenov and Larry O'Bannon; the Cards were down 32-18 at halftime. |
| For the second straight game, it was Bryant Northern who ignited the Cardinals' comeback. Northern finished with a team-high 18 points, and along with Kendall Dartez, sparked U of L's climb back into the game. In cutting the lead to four, Northern and Dartez each had eight points in scoring U of L's first 16 points of the second half. Reece Gaines hit his first shot of the game, a three, with 11:14 left to pull U of L to within 38-37. While U of L turned up the heat defensively, holding Ohio State to 6-21 shooting in the second half, Gaines continued to drive to the basket and either get fouled or find the open man. Gaines scored all 14 of his points in the second half. The Cards, who were able to apply their press once they started making shots in the second half, forced OSU into 13 second half turnovers. Brent Darby, who led all scorers with 24 points, hit two free throws with 6.5 seconds left to tie the game at 57. Luke Whitehead missed a three at the buzzer to win the game. Several Cards stepped up big towards the end and in overtime. Northern scored seven in the extra period, while Gaines had five points and two assists. In the last six minutes of regulation, Erik Brown had five points and three rebounds. Noticeably absent at this time was U of L's frontcourt. Marvin Stone went 0-5 from the field, did not score, and pulled down seven rebounds before fouling out after only 20 minutes of action. Whitehead, who wound up with nine points and eight rebounds, fouled out in overtime, as did Myles, who picked up a technical foul early in the game for throwing an elbow. Myles finished with 12 points and four rebounds before fouling out. |
Northern, who was 3-6 from three-point range, hit a jumper with 3:15 to put U of L up for good at 60-58. OSU hit a free throw, then an off-balanced jumper by Gaines put the Cards up 62-59. Ohio State blew a lay-up, which the Cards took advantage of when Gaines found Luke Whitehead open for an easy lay-up and a five-point lead. Gaines then came up with a steal for U of L, and followed that up by making two free throws. Northern went 5-6 from the line in the final 42 seconds to seal the win. The victory was U of L's first as a ranked team since Nov. 28, 1997, and marked their first back-to-back road wins since the 2000 season.  |
| Date: Dec. 15, 2001 | Score: Louisville 66, Ohio State 61 |
| Leading Scorers: U of L: Ellis Myles (17) Ohio State: Brian Brown (12) |
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| Imagine this: the Cardinals shoot a pathetic 4-28 from three-point range, and an almost-as-bad 18-34 from the foul line, but yet still wind up winning. How? For the second straight game, defense. Ohio State, which had been a good shooting team coming into the game, made only 1-7 three-pointers themselves. Like the Cardinals, the Buckeyes set a school record with 37 three-point attempts in their last contest; against the Cardinals, Ohio State took only one three-pointer in the entire second half. In winning their first six games, Ohio State had shot 51.4% from the field; in losing their first game of the year (also their first road game of the year), they shot only 38.8%. |
| Ohio State led at the half 26-25, but it was an exciting second period, one which saw limited action for several U of L players. Luke Whitehead, coming off a terrible fall in Wednesday's game against Coppin State, started the game, but played only 12 minutes -- just two in the second half -- and had three assists, a rebound, and a steal but did not score. Reece Gaines was in foul trouble for most of the game, and missed almost the entire second half before returning with five minutes left in the game. Plus, freshman guard Carlos Hurt fouled out with seven minutes remaining and scored only three points. Ohio State led by two when Reece Gaines picked up his fourth foul with 17:09 left in the game. The Cards then went on a 15-6 run with a line-up of Hurt, Larry O'Bannon, Ellis Myles, Erik Brown, and Brandon Bender. Bender has his best game as a Cardinal, totaling a career-high 11 points plus eight rebounds. Myles had six points during the run, and a Bender lay-up gave the Cards a 44-37 lead with 12:16 left. Bender was a factor during the run and after it. He had three key assists in this time frame, one to an Ellis Myles hoop, another for a Carlos Hurt three, and then another to Myles, who led all scorers with 17 points. The Buckeyes pulled within one, then Bender dunked off a lob from Bryant Northern to start an 11-2 run that put U of L up 55-45 -- its biggest lead of the game -- with 5:25 left. |
| Gaines came back into the game at around the five minute mark with the Cards still comfortably ahead. But when Brian Brown, who lead Ohio State with 12 points, scored on a lay-up with 2:44 left, he started a 7-0 Buckeye run. Erik Brown fouled Boban Savovic on a three-point attempt with 1:35 left. Savovic made all three foul shots to pull Ohio State within one 59-58. Gaines then made a free throw, Ohio State committed a turnover at the 1:03 mark, then Gaines hit two more free throws with 39 seconds left. Gaines hit 5-6 from the charity stripe in the last 39 seconds, and the Cards made 11-16 free throws in the last 4:25, which helped the fact they did not score a field goal in that period. After an Ohio State miss and an Erik Brown rebound, Brown made one of two free throws, followed by two more Gaines free throws with 12 seconds left. |
| The Cards were outrebounded 44-40, but scored 19 points off of 16 Ohio State turnovers. Ohio State themselves shot only 22-33 from the charity stripe. For the game, Bender was a perfect 5-5 from the field, while Ellis Myles was 5-6 and had nine rebounds along with his 17 points. The rest of the Cards shot only 12-47. It was the Cards' first win over a Big Ten team since the 1997 season. |
