CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The University of Louisville men's basketball team bounced back from down 15 in the second half to win their opening game of the ACC tournament off a Chucky Hepburn game winner against Stanford 75-73.
The 15-point comeback is the largest deficit that the Cardinals have overcome in a game this season. Louisville’s previous largest comeback of the year came against West Virginia on Nov. 28 when the Cardinals bounced back from down 11.
This was Louisville’s first game trailing at the half this year against a conference opponent and now move to 3-4 when trailing at halftime. The Cardinals were able to hold on to their lead late in the second half for the 26th time this season, moving to 26-0 when leading with five minutes left to play in games this season.
Louisville had four starters in double digits in today’s contest. Terrence Edwards. Jr. led all scorers with 25. Chucky Hepburn scored 20 points and adding in eight assists. Noah Waterman and James Scott both chipped in 12 points in the Cardinals winning effort.
“First thing I want to say is, I want to acknowledge Kyle (Smith) and his team at Stanford,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “They played a whale of a game. That was a heck of a college basketball game. We just played them a week ago, maybe less than that, and give them a lot of credit for how they responded to that loss, the adjustments they made, how hard their kids played. They played their hearts out. They competed. They deserve a lot of credit. I wanted to say that first and foremost. Obviously, being down 15 points with 11 to play is the epitome of your back is against the wall, and I've been saying all year long how lucky I am to have such a veteran-laden team, so much leadership within our team. I didn't have to say much in the huddle. How these guys responded to that adversity was amazing, and I'm very, very, very proud of them.”
Louisville improves to 26-6 overall and 19-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season. Stanford sees their ACC Tournament trip come up short, finishing the tournament 1-1 after beating Cal in their first game in Charlotte.
Louisville started out strong, scoring the first six points of the game on back-to-back Waterman 3’s. Stanford responded with a 7-0 run of their own, taking a 7-6 lead at the first media timeout.
Both teams traded baskets over the next eight minutes to go into the media timeout tied at 13. Edwards Jr. came out of the timeout firing, hitting two threes to see Louisville take a 19-13 lead. Both teams continued to battle for the remainder of the half as Stanford would take a 33-30 lead going into the break.
Edwards Jr. led all scorers going into halftime with 12 points. Waterman added in nine points and was a perfect 2-2 from deep in the first 20 minutes.
Stanford started the second half making six of their first seven shots to extend their lead to 52-37 before forcing a Louisville timeout. Edwards Jr. responded, scoring four points out of the first media timeout of the half. Both teams continued to battle as Stanford would hold a 57-46 lead going into the under 12 timeout.
Louisville responded, using a 9-0 run capped off by a J’Vonne Hadley dunk to trim the Stanford lead to just four, forcing Stanford to use their first timeout of the second half. The Cardinals continued to gain momentum out of the break as a Hepburn and-one cut the deficit to just one. Both teams would trade buckets to go into the under eight timeout tied at 60.
With the game knotted at 65, Hepburn would nail a three to give Louisville a lead. Hadley’s transition bucket extended the lead to five before a Stanford timeout. Trailing 73-65, Stanford used an 8-0 run, capped off by a converted and-one transition bucket, to tie the game back at 73 to force a Louisville timeout.
With 27.2 left on the clock, Louisville would trim the shot and game clock down to two before missing a three with three seconds left. Stanford tried to corral the loose rebound before it landed in Hepburn’s hands to sink the mid-range game winner as time expired to give Louisville the hard-fought 75-73 win.
UofL will face Clemson U on Friday at 9:30 pm with a trip to the ACC Tournament Championship on the line. The game can be seen on ESPN.
