How it happened: Louisville's comeback falls short at North Carolina
After screeching out to a 10-point first-half lead and starting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc, 24th-ranked Louisville fell short at No. 18 North Carolina, 77-74.
The Cardinals have been known to play games of runs, and Monday’s loss in Chapel Hill was no different. It looked for a second as if Pat Kelsey’s team had caught the Tar Heels off guard with an early 3-point barrage, but North Carolina eventually grounded itself with a strong close to the first half to take a one-point lead.
In the final 1:51 of the first period, Louisville missed its last five shots. This eventually leaked out of the locker room as the Cardinals struggled on defense in the second half. Kelsey’s group allowed a 7-1 UNC run in the first two minutes, as Louisville had back-to-back miscommunications in its ball-screen coverage.
Continuing the rough shooting to end the first half, Louisville missed its next 10 and eventually trailed by 16 with 13:38 to go.
Louisville senior Ryan Conwell scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half and was a big reason why the Cardinals were eventually able to cut into the deficit and make it a one-score game. He finished 7-of-19 from the field and 4-of-11 from 3. Due to a poor free-throw shooting night from UNC (9-of-19), the Cardinals eventually had the basketball down three with 20 seconds left, before Mikel Brown Jr. took it aggressively to the rim, looked for contact, but to no avail.
Kelsey later revealed he was trying to signal for Brown to call a timeout.
From a peek at the box score, you would think Louisville outrebounding North Carolina 41-32 and making 14 (six more) 3s would be enough to get a win over a team playing without its best player, freshman forward Caleb Wilson. But the Cards didn’t do enough of the little things to make up for an overall inefficient night on both ends. Louisville shot just 38.6 percent to UNC’s 53.6 percent, didn’t tally a dunk, and was 10-of-20 on layups. The Tar Heels eventually outscored the Cardinals 40-24 in the paint.
UNG guard Seth Trimble finished with a career high 30 points on an excellent 11-for-16 night. Trimble also notched four rebounds and four assists. Henri Veesaar and Luka Bogavac both followed their point guard up by giving Carolina 12.
Brown led Louisville with 24 points, but seemed a bit out of sorts outside the first 10-15 minutes. He shot the ball 25 times and had only 2 assists.
The Cardinals, now dropping to 20-8 overall and 9-6 in ACC play, will travel to play a Clemson team that has lost four in a row.
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