Desi Rodriguez did everything for the Seton Hall Pirates against the No. 17 Louisville Cardinals Sunday afternoon including the winning basket with eight seconds to play. After Deng Adel’s jumper tied the game at 77 with 28 seconds to play, Rodriguez drove to the basket for a layup to put the Pirates ahead 79 – 77. Quentin Snider attempted the game-winning three for the Cards, but missed, sending the Cards to their second consecutive loss.
“I just told our players it’s two games in a row now,” said David Padgett. “We’ve worked too hard to shoot ourselves in the foot. What I mean by that, is we work on defense, we get a stop, we get a rebound, and we come down and turn the ball over and give it right back to them.”
Carelessness was a theme for the Cardinals as they committed 16 turnovers versus only eight assists. Padgett had this to say about the turnovers, “It seems like most of our turnovers are what I call ‘pick six’s’, where there is no defense for it. They get a back tip, we lose the ball, we do something, and we can’t go down and set our defense, and they just score.”
Deng Adel led the Cards with 20 points, five rebounds, two assists, and two blocks. Quentin Snider had 15 points for the Cards and V. J. King had his second solid game in a row finishing with 14 points, making six of his eight shots.
A major sore spot for the Cardinals was the play Anas Mahmoud and Ray Spalding. Mahmoud finished with no points and only one rebound. He did block five shots, but for the Cards to do anything they are going to have to have better production from Mahmoud.
Spalding didn’t fare much better. He finished with two points on 1 – 5 shooting.
Louisville’s next game is against the Siena Saints Wednesday at 7 in the KFC Yum Center.
