BOZICH | Louisville exits with 71-61 Senior Day loss to Virginia | Sports

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Let’s keep this simple: A University of Louisville men’s basketball regular season as ugly as anybody can remember ended with a Senior Day serving of more indigestion.

The script held. The struggle continued. The song remained the same.

Virginia 71, Louisville 61, the Cardinals’ third consecutive loss by double figures. It could be no other way Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.

"I will acknowledge and recognize the fact that I thought our guys showed more fight today than they had in the last game," U of L interim head coach Mike Pegues said.

That is not hyperbole. Against Wake Forest, Louisville allowed 99 points and lost by 22. Against Virginia Tech, Louisville scored 43 and lost by 32.

Against Virginia there were moments when it seemed like the Cards would lose by 22 or 32. At least the second half was different. They scored 44, which was more than double what Louisville scored in the first half and one point more than the Cards managed in 40 minutes against the Hokies.

Until the program hires a new coach and resets next season, minor victories like that remain something for his overmatched group to celebrate. It's easy to forget this team won its first four Atlantic Coast Conference games. Things wobbled wildly out of rhythm and never got fixed.

Louisville lost 14 of its last 16 games by an average of ... 13.1 points. Don't tell that to Milt Wagner or Rodney McCray. The Cards move on to Brooklyn to play Georgia Tech in the first round of the ACC Tournament at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"Our inconsistency and inability on the defensive end to finish every possession hurt us," Pegues said. "That's what I thought the game was lost."

This is what Pegues was talking about:

Louisville led, 8-0.

Soon, the Cardinals trailed, 16-14.

Then they trailed, 27-16.

By halftime it was, 36-17. Virginia didn't mess with three-point shots. The Cavaliers took one and made one. The Cards rank No, 304 in the nation, yet they continue to launch from distance. They attempted eight in the first half and made one.

The Cards surged for a few minutes to start the second half. They cut the lead to 10 before Virginia pushed it back to 17.

Credit Sydney Curry. He was not interested in walking away without making Virginia coach Tony Bennett fret. Why would he do that? Curry arrived at Louisville last summer weighing 301 pounds. He competed against Virginia at 49 pounds less than that. Treadmill. Stair-master. Weights. All that stuff works.

"My mindset going into every game is I'm trying to be unstoppable," Curry said. "That's my personal mindset going into the game."

Four times Curry celebrated old-school three-point plays, bulling his way to the rim for a basket as well as a free-throw.

The fourth time Curry did that he cut Virginia’s lead to 64-56 with four minutes to play. A three-point field goal by Malik Williams later made it 66-59.

That was where the drama ended, despite Curry’s 24 points and 14 rebounds. While losing the last three games Louisville has discovered it has one guy who can consistently deliver big offensive numbers. Against Wake, Tech and Virginia, Curry averaged 23.3 points while making 30 of 43 field goal attempts, 70%.

"We've kind of revamped our offense to play around him and get the ball inside," Pegues said.

Louisville slipped to 12-18 overall and 6-14 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. If they fail to win a game in the ACC Tournament next week, they will finish with the same 12-19 record the program suffered during Denny Crum's final season 21 years ago.

Four players participated in the pre-game Senior Day ceremony — Williams, Mason Faulkner, Noah Locke and Jarrod West.

At least one more game remains for the Cardinals. On Tuesday, the opening day of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, they will play Georgia Tech, a team they defeated, 67-64, in Atlanta on Jan. 2. If the Cards win, they'll get a third game this season against Virginia on Wednesday. The Cavaliers have beaten U of L twice.

"Couldn't wait to say we're oh-and-oh," Pegues said. "Couldn't wait to say it."

The Cards have at least two players who are not ready to learn who will be the program's next coach.

"When we went to the Bahamas at the beginning of the season, we weren't playing real well," Locke said. "Just play our best basketball, play together as a team. I feel like we've got enough talent to do whatever we want."

"We're the best team in the country in my mind," Curry said. "I know a lot of things have went on this year but we should just stick strong together and I think we can accomplish anything we want."

The Cards will have one final chance to prove that -- or at least win a game.