Notre Dame traveled to the YUM! Center to take on the Louisville Cardinals who are looking for a big time win that could boost their resume. The Cardinals are playing their first ranked team since losing Chris Jones and it wasn’t pretty. Louisville struggled once again on offense and it was the entire night.
The first half it was a back and forth affair in the beginning. UofL scored the first 6 points, then ND went on a 10-0 run to fight back. Terry Rozier was struggling throughout as he forced many ill-advised shots. Harrell was the only player capable of dominating on the offensive side for the Cardinals. Blackshear was stepping into his shot, looking confident. Turnovers and not getting back on defense was the weakness of Louisville tonight. It created many easy shots, and Louisville would just give the ball away many positions in a row. Notre Dame was up by 11 at halftime after a Grant buzzer beater.
“It was as if we thought we were Notre Dame the way we were running our offense,” said Pitino.
The Cardinals started off the 2nd half on an 11-0 run to claw back into the game. Snider hit a bank three and Rozier looked to have his shot back in the process. But then Notre Dame went on a stretch that they were making everything they threw up. Louisville couldn’t get a stop as Harrell tried to do everything he could. Rozier led the downfall as he threw up wild shots still and couldn’t buy a jump shot. It didn’t help either that Louisville had only 2 bench points.
Final Score: Notre Dame 71 Louisville 59
Game Notes: Montrezl Harrell had 23 points and 12 rebounds. Rozier and Blackshear had 11 points apiece. Grant had 12 points and 7 assists. Jackson had 21 points and 5 rebounds. Colson had 17 points and 9 rebounds. ND went 20-25 from free throw line as UOFL went 11-18. Notre Dame shot 53% as Louisville shot 42%.
Next Games:
Louisville - Virginia 3/6//15
Notre Dame - Clemson 3/6/15