Louisville Basketball: 5 biggest league wins for Cardinals since joining ACC
By Caleb Hall
No. 2 Virginia 57, No. 16 Louisville 59: March 17th, 2015
If you’re a Louisville fan and someone says “Virginia game winner” you are probably not having any good flashbacks. Most people in general think of the 2018 senior night game where the Cards blew a double digit lead to the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers to a banked in three. However, before that there was another last second shot that beat a top ranked Virginia team in 2015 and that is the game I’ll be talking about instead.
Virginia in the 2014-15 season was led by Malcolm Brogdon who is now a big NBA talent and you could even tell back then in his UVA days. Virginia was looking to cruise to the NCAA tourney and try to avoid any upsets that would push back their seeding. While Louisville was looking for a big win to try and bump up their seeding.
Louisville started off the game with a 19-5 run where Terry Rozier and Montrezl Harrell were all over the court making plays. Virginia caught up soon after that, especially after halftime. The game was like a chess match all the way till the final whistle blew. Louisville was able to out rebound the cavaliers and even cause 13 turnovers, which is extremely impressive considering how precise Tony Bennett’s team plays.
Harrell went off against the Cavaliers by scoring 20 points and even adding 12 rebounds to that. Quentin Snyder and Terry Rozier added 11 points apiece while Wayne Blackshear scored just 9 points. Even though Blackshear scored on a layup that would put the cards up 2 with just over 2 minutes to play. No one on either team would scored till the 14 second mark in the second half. Where Malcolm Brogdon hit a big three pointer to put the Cavaliers up 57-56. Brogdon played very well in this game where to he scored 17 points and hit 4 three pointers for the Cavaliers.
The final play of the game had Rozier run around outside the 3 point line and got a screen from Mangok Mathiang who go open and shot a jumper from the free throw line. The craziest part about that shot is that it went in to give the Cardinals a 58-57 lead over the Cavaliers, with hardly no time left on the clock. Mathiang was the hero of that game that gave Louisville one of it’s proudest wins since getting in the conference. Louisville ended up winning 59-57 with a free throw made by Rozier.
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The Cardinals have always struggled with the Cavaliers and beating them in such a satisfying way makes it the best ACC win the Louisville Cardinals have had to this day. Louisville has been struggling as of late, but looking back on these wins really shows that they can succeed in the ACC and hopefully someday play competitive conference basketball again.