LOUISVILLE, Ky. — January 27, 2024 – Zach Greenwell
Louisville men’s basketball made costly turnovers Saturday and fell into an early hole, dropping a 69-52 decision to Virginia at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals (6-14, 1-8 ACC) committed 18 turnovers – 14 of them live-ball miscues that became Virginia steals – and allowed the Cavaliers to convert them into 24 points.
Virginia (15-5, 6-3) led 41-13 at the break after a first half that included multiple 11-0 runs – one of them to start the game.
“Defensively, they play pack line defense,” Louisville head coach Kenny Payne said. “If you don’t move the ball, if you don’t run out, that’s hard. There are things about the way they play defensively that will stymie you. I am disappointed that we went over this two, three, four days in a row and we came out and didn’t play the way we needed to play to start this game. The way that we practiced, the way that we watched film, the way that we studied them, it didn’t translate to the game, and they came out and pretty much handily whipped us all over the court.”
Louisville went on an 11-0 run of its own midway through the second half, but Virginia quickly ended the threat with a 3-pointer by Isaac McKneely.
The Cavaliers shot 50% from the field and made 8 of 17 3-pointers.
The Cards went just 4-for-20 from the field in the first half, then shot 50% after the break. They made 19 of 24 free throws in the game.
“The most frustrating part was we had two really good days of preparation,” junior forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield said. “We feel like the practice leading up to the game, we felt like we started to figure out our defense a little bit more. And then we come into the game, and then we’re down to 10-0, we’re down 15-0. It just keeps snowballing and stuff. So that was the frustrating part, feeling like we had two good days of preparation and stuff within our defense, that we’re finding some improvement, we’re finding our footing on the defensive end, and then we’re just not putting it together in the first half, or throughout the whole game.”
Sophomore guard Tre White led Louisville with 10 points. Huntley-Hatfield and redshirt sophomore guard/forward Mike James each scored eight points, while Huntley-Hatfield also pulled down 10 boards.
Ryan Dunn paced Virginia with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Louisville returns to the road at Clemson at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday. The game will air on ACC Network.
