LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The University of Louisville got to the Battle 4 Atlantis shorthanded and will leave even more shorthanded.
But the Cardinals proved this. Even after a 69-64 loss to Oklahoma in the tournament title game, the team has plenty of heart. And grit. And savvy.
Playing their third game in three days, just as Oklahoma was, the Cardinals could not find the perimeter shooting that carried them in a victory over Indiana, and the loss of Kasean Pryor to what appeared to be a significant leg injury in the second half kept the Cards from utilizing more of the interior scoring they might otherwise have.
Kelsey had no update on Pryor's condition after the game. Jody Demling, doing play-by-play for the Louisville Radio Network at the game, said Pryor came back to the court in a wheelchair, and wasn't putting weight on the leg.
His absence made perimeter shooting even more important, and Louisville just couldn't find any consistently.
Still, Louisville had a chance to win despite 7-for-32 shooting from three-point range. Cardinals coach Pat Kelsey was incensed at the officials on the sidelines after an Oklahoma defender appeared to reach across the sideline defending the final inbound pass -- which the Sooners eventually deflected and tied up for a held-ball turnover.
Kelsey said he got no explanation from officials.
"I don't think they were in a mood to give me an explanation," he said. "Because I was losing my mind."
Even with that, Kelsey had no complaints about his team's effort.
"That's sports, you know, sometimes the ball bounces your way, sometimes it doesn't," Kelsey told Bob Valvano on his postgame radio show. "Those guys are human beings. They're not perfect. That's just the way it goes sometimes. I'm proud of our guys. They showed great fight, tenacity. you look at the statistics, we outrebounded them by 21, had 14 more field goal attempts. I just like the grit and toughness our guys played with the last three days. They didn't let up for one second. Obviously with Kasean going down early in the second half we were even more shorthanded, already without Koren (Johnson) and Aboubacar (Traore) but again, that's the way life is and that's the way basketball is. Our guys didn't hang their heads, didn't feel sorry for themselves. They just continued to fight, had a chance to tie the game in the last possession, it just didn't go our way."
Point guard Chucky Hepburn was relentless with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Forward J'Vonne Hadley had a dozen points and 13 rebounds. Noah Waterman added 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Louisville boarded its plane to go to the Bahamas with more answers than questions. It may not have answered all of them, but in three games in Paradise Island the Cardinals showed that they have a lot things that Pat Kelsey has been touting since before the season: Toughness, cohesiveness, competitiveness, seasoning.
It was Louisville's third trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis and its third loss in the championship game.
Louisville fell behind by 10 points in the first half, then spent the rest of the game battling back to nearly even, without completely getting over the hump. Still, with 1:26 left, a Hadley three-pointer brought them within two points.
After the teams traded scores, Louisville remained down two with 49.7 seconds left.Â
Then Jalon Moore, who had been brilliant all night, missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Louisville had its chance.
Waterman, who was 0-for-4 from three-point range on the night, missed a three-pointer from the corner with 15 seconds left and Oklahoma rebounded and was fouled.
Jeremiah Fears made the first of two, Hadley rebounded, drove the ball down the court and Louisville called timeout with 8.1 seconds left, with a chance to tie. But when Louisville inbounded, Oklahoma got a tie-up to force a held-ball turnover with six seconds left, and that was that. A subsequent Louisville foul gave Oklahoma two more free throws for the final margin.
Kelsey was incensed with the officials for the first time this season after the final play, arguing that Oklahoma leaned into the inbound passer on the final play. The game was physical all night, with little freedom of movement. But throughout the final two games in the Bahamas, Louisville battled through the physical play, showing marked progress from the struggles it encountered in a blowout loss to Tennessee.
"The game was very, very, very physical, as I said the other day when we played West Virginia," Kelsey told Valvano. "I think that it was established really early on that that's how the game was going to go, and that's how the game was going to play. And it's imperative that you adjust and adjust to the style of play and the way that the officiating calls it, and so it goes. And I think our guys did that. You know, they are physical defense. They make your cuts hard. I know freedom of movement is kind of the buzzword in college basketball, but, it's still a physical game, and each game is called a little bit differently, and I thought our guys did a good job."
When asked by Valvano how you teach to play through that kind of physical defense, Kelsey said, "You just bow your neck and freaking do it."
Louisville managed just 38 percent shooting in the game and had 14 turnovers. But it outrebounded Oklahoma 44-23 and outscored the Sooners 25-7 in second-chance points.
Moore led Oklahoma with 24 points. The Sooners shot 47.7 percent from the field for the game.
Louisville doesn't have much time to rest. The Cardinals will face No. 23 Ole Miss at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night.
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