ACC Basketball: Virginia wears down short-handed Louisville

Without four key players, Louisville was dominated by Virginia from halftime to the final buzzer of this ACC basketball showdown.

The Virginia Cavaliers have owned Louisville since the Cardinals joined the ACC back in 2014.

With Tony Bennett’s history against Rick Pitino, I guess it wasn’t good news that Louisville was missing four key contributors for their top 25 showdown in Charlottesville on Monday.

And it turned out how we all expected. Without injured point guards Quentin Snider and Tony Hicks, and suspended forwards Mangok Mathiang and Deng Adel (curfew violations), the Cardinals were dominated in the second half on their way to a 71-55 loss on the road.

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The Cavaliers received a huge lift from London Perrantes, who scored 18 points on 5-of-12 shooting, and Isaiah Wilkins, who had another big game, scoring 13 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Darius Thompson chipped in 10 off the bench for the Wahoos and Virginia had nine players record at least a point on the scoreboard.

Meanwhile, Louisville was actually leading the game for a solid portion of the first half. They used crisp ball movement, excellent penetration from Donovan Mitchell and a career performance from V.J. King (24 total points on 8-of-14 shooting) to take a seven-point lead at one time late in the 1st frame.

However, momentum shifted heading into the half as Jack Salt grabbed an offensive rebound off a Perrantes missed free throw and finished amongst the trees to convert the final points of the opening 20 minutes.

Things just went south from there for the Cardinals. The ball movement that was evident in the first half became non-existent as Louisville started to fall in love with the outside shot and turned to isolation plays far too often. Virginia’s defense that was uncharacteristically shaky in the first half was far more aggressive and the Cavaliers started to limit their giveaways on the other end of the floor.

Pitino had to know that the Cavaliers were going to buckle up defensively and use their offensive efficiency to limit the Cardinals’ chances of keeping their lead. But ultimately, they just didn’t have enough. In order to beat Virginia, especially on the road, you must play 40 minutes. The Cardinals just didn’t have the bodies — they were so thin that Jay Henderson, a walk-on, played three minutes, all when the game was still not decided — and the Wahoos’ defense was just too much for a team with only seven guys.

The Cardinals are still one of the best teams in the nation when they are fully healthy and they have the upside to make it to Glendale for the Final Four. King’s performance was promising and with Snider likely to return this weekend, the Cardinals’ stock is pointing upwards. What they were able to do without their best player has been impressive within itself (they won three straight games by 103 points).

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Meanwhile, Virginia continues to prove that they are the real deal despite having some offensive deficiencies. The Cavs very well might be the best team in the ACC.

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