Louisville Basketball: 5 biggest league wins for Cardinals since joining ACC
By Caleb Hall
No. 13 North Carolina 68, No. 10 Louisville 78 OT: January 31st, 2015
The Louisville Cardinals were in stride during the 2014-2015 season in late January when the North Carolina Tar Heels came to town. It was 2 seasons after the 2013 championship, but there were still stars on this team including Montrezl Harrell, Chinanu Onuaku, terry Rozier, and Wayne Blackshear. Along with role players like Quentin Snyder, Chris Jones, and Mangok Mathiang. They were also still led by Rick Pitino who had not been accused of any allegations yet.
The Tar Heels came to town atop of the ACC and being one of the more physical teams in the league with players like Kennedy Meeks, Brice Johnson, and versatile wing players like Justin Jackson. However, Carolina was coming into a hostile Louisville environment that was declared a white out on a saturday. Pitino also came out in a fashionable white suit with some scrappy facial hair, so Louisville fans knew something odd was going to happen that night when he walked out…
UNC came out blazing even through all of this though. They led 36-25 at halftime by outworking and out rebounding the Cardinals. UNC led 43-25 with about 18 minutes left in the game and by the end of regulation the score was all tied up at 60. The Cardinals ended regulation on a 35-17 run and Louisville fans in the Yum Center were going ballistic.
Montrezl Harrell finished the game with 22 points and 15 rebounds while also shooting 50% from the field. While Chris Jones added 17 points, and Terry Rozier had 22 points with 10 assists. Harrell had one of Louisville’s all time classic dunks in this game (Harrell has a lot of those). He caught a lob from chris jones that Harrell absolutely slammed down with one hand that cut the lead down to single digits. Ever since that moment Louisville just started making shots and dropped 53 points in the 2nd half and overtime on the Tar Heels.
It was one of the classic marque college basketball games that people will be talking about for a long time. It had it all: dunks, threes, comebacks, an overtime thriller, and Rick Pitino in a white suit. What more could a college basketball fan ask for.