Louisville defeated Georgia Tech, 84-72, in the first round of the 2022 ACC Tournament on Tuesday, advancing to a late-night Wednesday matchup with sixth-seeded Virginia.
The Cardinals (13-18), the tournament’s 11th seed, and Cavaliers (18-12) just met over the weekend, with UVA winning, 71-61, to complete a regular-season sweep.
Virginia also defeated Louisville in JPJ, 64-52, back on Jan. 24.
The Cards had lost 14 of their last 16 heading into Tuesday’s game in the Barclays Center with Georgia Tech (12-20), the 14th seed, but after falling behind 7-0 early, Louisville took control with a pair of runs – one 14-4, the second 13-2 – and led 45-28 at the half.
Louisville would lead by as many as 27 before a 19-0 Georgia Tech run cut the margin to eight, at 67-59, on a pair of Jordan Usher free throws with 6:47 left.
The Yellow Jackets would get as close as five, on a Dallan Coleman free throw with 2:57 on the clock, before a pair of Jarrod West threes gave Louisville some breathing room.
West finished with 20 points to lead five Cardinals in double figures.
In Saturday’s game in the Yum! Center, Virginia led by 19 points at halftime, but had to withstand a pair of Louisville second-half runs, including one that got the margin down to seven, to hold on for the 10-point win.
Reece Beekman ended up with 15 points (6-of-9 FG, 3-of-3 3FG), 12 rebounds, five assists and the five steals in 39 minutes.
Kadin Shedrick was the leading scorer for UVA, with a career-hjgh 20 points, 16 in the first half, on 8-of-9 shooting, in 23 minutes off the bench.
Armaan Franklin added 13 points (3-of-7 FG, 2-of-4 3FG, 5-of-6 FT), and Kody Stattmann had 11 points (3-of-5 FG, 1-of-2 3FG, 4-of-6 FT) in 29 minutes off the bench.
Sydney Curry had 24 points (9-of-13 FG, 6-of-6 FT) and 14 rebounds for Louisville.
The script was similar in the Jan. 24 game. Virginia jumped out to a 19-point first-half lead, Louisville got as close as four in the second half, but the ‘Hoos got stops and key buckets down the stretch on their way to the 12-point win.
Things got a little hairy for UVA after the hot start in the opening 20 minutes, fueled by solid D – Louisville missed 14 of its first 18 shots – and solid play from Kihei Clark, who had nine points and four assists in the first half to key the offense.
Louisville was able to get it back to 35-23 at the break, and then a Malik Williams jumper with 11:54 to go cut the margin to four, at 45-41.
Beekman assisted on back-to-back buckets by Shedrick and Jayden Gardner to get the lead back to eight.
A Clark three with 7:51 to go pushed the lead back to double digits.
Back-to-back threes from Williams and West got Louisville to 52-47 at the 5:29 mark, but Virginia took over from there with a 12-2 run over the next five minutes, as the Cardinals missed six of their seven shots in the stretch.
Another Clark three, with 35 seconds left, punctuated the win for Virginia.
The winner of Wednesday’s game, which will start around 9:30 p.m., will advance to face #3 seed North Carolina (23-8, 15-5 ACC) in Thursday’s quarterfinal round.
Story by Chris Graham
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