Louisville had won three games all year. Virginia had lost four. There’s a reason they have you play the game.
The apparently underinflated ball, now, that was an interesting touch.
Not sure what to make of that one.
Whatever the psi of the game ball, Virginia, a 16-point road favorite, had to force a miss on a potential game-tying three by Kamari Lands with two seconds left to escape with a 61-58 win on Wednesday night.
Louisville (3-23, 1-14 ACC), by and large, outplayed Virginia in this one, leading by as many as nine in the first half, then answering every time the Cavaliers got a sliver of space in the second half.
UVA (20-4, 12-3 ACC) finally got what felt like some comfort, a 10-point lead on a scoop layup by Kihei Clark with 5:16 to go that made it 55-45.
The lead was still eight, at 60-52, after Clark found Jayden Gardner all alone under the hoop for a bunny with 3:06 left, but that would be the last made field goal of the night for the ‘Hoos.
Virginia, as it did in Saturday’s 69-62 OT win over Duke, struggled at the line, shooting 9-of-16 on the night, including 1-of-4 in the final 50 seconds, with two misses on the front end of one-and-ones.
Louisville took advantage, twice getting a pair of free throws, from Jae’Lyn Withers at the 2:51 mark, then from El Ellis with 1:16 on the clock, to get the deficit down to four.
After Clark made one of two with 50 seconds left, Louisville got an offensive rebound stickback from JJ Traynor with 31 seconds left to get it to a one-score game.
Clark bricked the front end of a one-and-one with 29 ticks left, and Louisville, without a timeout, tried to work the ball for a good shot, but Virginia’s defense forced the miss from Lands, a 31.5 percent shooter from three on the season, with two seconds on the clock.
Ben Vander Plas snared the rebound with seven-tenths of a second left, and of course missed the front end of the one-and-one on the other end, though that would not matter.
Highlights
Box score
Deflate-gate?
The item about the second half, at least a portion of the second half, having been played with an underinflated ball is still a developing part of this story.
Clark quite demonstratively grabbed the ball after the final buzzer and walked it to coach Tony Bennett.
According to the Virginia radio crew, the ball was measured to be 2.8 pounds per square inch, psi, below the minimum standard, which is 7.5 to 8.5 psi.
Basketballs below the 7.5 psi standard would present issues with bouncing, and one would assume with shooting.
Though of course, that one would cut both ways, for however long the issue was there.
Inside the box score
Virginia shot 44.2 percent (23-of-52), 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) in the second half, but after a clean first half, had six second-half turnovers.
Not a lot to brag about here. Clark had 14 points and six assists, and Armaan Franklin had 14 points and five rebounds.
Gardner and Vander Plas each had 10 points. Vander Plas had a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards.
Freshman Isaac McKneely, who needs to shoot more, had eight points on 3-of-4 shooting, 2-of-3 from three.
On the Louisville side, the Cardinals shot 42.0 percent (21-of-50), and connected on 8-of-20 from three for the game, the 40 percent clip a couple of steps ahead of the 33.5 percent that they were shooting from three coming in.
Ellis had 21 points on 7-of-14 shooting to lead Louisville.
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Chris Graham
