PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – UofL men’s basketball advances to the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship after a 79-70 overtime victory against West Virginia on Thanksgiving Thursday.
“I have an unbelievable respect for (West Virginia’s) program, their coach, their coaching staff,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “They play hard. They play hard. It was a 45-minute rock fight and they never let up, we never let up. It was almost like old school Big East, like when both of us, Louisville and West Virginia, were in the Big East, one of my coaches said that. I give them a ton of credit. It was a really, really good college basketball game. I’m proud of our guys for having the wherewithal late in the game. When we lost that lead late in regulation, we fought back, got a bunch of stops in overtime, and found a way to come out with a win. Obviously, Chucky's performance was spectacular. I’ve been doing this a long time, coached Chris Paul and several other NBA point guards, and that was one of the single most dominant performances on both ends of the floor by a point guard that I've ever seen standing on the sidelines as a coach. Not just Chucky—I just think all our guys dug down deep, gutted the win out, guarded with everything we had and just played really hard. I'm proud of them.”
There were six ties and seven lead changes in the overtime contest.
Louisville strung together six straight points, taking a 8-6 lead and holding West Virginia scoreless for four and a half minutes. The Mountaineers responded with a 18-5 run to take an 11-point lead, their largest lead of the game, with 1:49 to go in the first half.
The Cardinals scored the final seven points of the half, kickstarted by a Chucky Hepburn 3-pointer, to get back within four, 28-24, by halftime.
Louisville went on a 10-3 run early in the second half to make it a one-point ballgame at 11:05, but West Virginia continued to push back. The Cardinals finally got over the hump with a 14-2 run, flipping the script and taking a 59-52 lead with just over four minutes to go. Nine of those 14 points in the run were scored by Hepburn.
The Mountaineers refused to go down without a fight, responding with eight straight points of their own to take a 60-59 lead with 2:00 on the clock. Terrence Edwards Jr. had a putback layup to regain the lead, but West Virginia got down the court and made a layup of their own to lead 62-61.
Hepburn made just one of two free throws with over 30 seconds left, and neither team scored again, forcing a 62-62 overtime game.
Louisville got right to work with a 3-pointer from Reyne Smith. West Virginia tied it up against at 67-all with 2:59 to go, but the Cardinals closed out overtime with a 12-3 run, eight of those points at the charity stripe, to seal the game.
Hepburn had a career afternoon with 32 points, three rebounds, two assists and six steals. He went 14 of 17 from the free throw line and 8 for 12 from the field. He is the only Louisville player since at least 2010-11 to log 32 points and six steals.
Reyne Smith made four 3-pointers and scored 15 points in 37 minutes of action. Kasean Pryor neared a double-double with 13 points and eight boards. He added in a season-high three blocks.
Javon Small went 10 of 19 from the field to drop 26 points and seven assists in the West Virginia defeat.
Louisville will now face either No. 24/23 Arizona or Oklahoma in the championship game of Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
