Ouch.
Missed free-throws and missed rebounds ultimately led to a missed opportunity for Louisville.
The Cardinals Missed four free-throws and had four turnovers in the final 5:33 of action as they fell to Miami in overtime Wednesday night, 78-75. Even with all the mistakes, U of L had one final chance to win the game in the closing seconds, but Ryan McMahon’s three-pointer was blocked by the Hurricanes’ Lonnie Walker (would have been cool if his breakout game had come against someone else). After Ja’Quan Newton made one of two free-throws, Deng Adel’s desperation shot from just inside mid-court found nothing but glass.
You hate feeling this despondent after any game, but it’s especially tough to come to terms with when your team played so well for so much of the evening. Louisville was, outside of its uncharacteristically poor free-throw shooting, really good for the first 39 minutes or so. That fact is little consolation when the team plays just about as poorly as it can during the final six.
A lot of people are going to bring up Adel’s shot selection down the stretch, and deservedly so. But the play that I can’t get over is him lying on the ground after a missed force and allowing Miami to get a fast-break dunk for its first points of overtime. The Hurricanes had been totally disjointed on offense before that bucket, and all Deng had to do to prevent it was not lie on the ground. That’s .... well, that’s frustrating.
Equally frustrating was how Miami’s third and fourth points of overtime came to be.
The ball was definitely on the rim, but it shouldn’t have mattered. If Louisville gives anywhere near its median effort, then the Cards close things out in regulation or win with relative ease in the extra period.
It’s hard to be greedy given, you know, all the stuff, but this team probably should be unbeaten in conference play right now. They certainly should have notched their most impressive victory of the season tonight in Miami. The fact that they didn’t is going to sting for a while.
Let’s just hope this doesn’t totally ruin the positive mojo that had been accumulating over the past couple weeks.
