LOUISVILLE, Ky. – University of Louisville men’s basketball closes out its non-conference slate with a 78-76 victory over EKU after sixth-year senior forward Noah Waterman made a last second shot to win the game for the Cardinals.
“I give Eastern Kentucky a lot of credit,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “They played a heck of a game. I’ve known A.W. Hamilton for a long time. He started at Wake Forest his first year. My first day in college coaching, I arrived on campus and didn’t know where the heck I was and the first person I met was A.W. Hamilton with a big smile on his face and a firm handshake and we’ve been friends ever since. He does a heck of a job. They had a great game plan. Those two guards were terrific tonight and we’re very fortunate to come out with a win. I thought our guys competed, our guys played hard, didn’t play our best but I credit them for the way they defended us, so we didn’t play our best. I look at the offensive rebounding total, I always look at that as an indicator as grit, tenacity and toughness and we got 50% of our misses; James Scott had seven offensive rebounds. We turn the ball over too much. We played against Florida State the other day who is a ferocious defensive team with great length and athleticism. They turn people over as good as anybody in the country and we played very well, very poised. These guys have a similar defensive philosophy, a little different, but in a lot of ways they want to create turnovers, and they did that today. We didn’t play with the same poise and had a negative assist to turnover ratio. Fortunate to come out with the win, it’s not always going to be pretty, it was a little ugly tonight. Noah Waterman stepped up. He’s a little banged up, but like all of our guys he’s tough as heck and continues to fight through it and made a shot that he’s going to tell his grandkids about. You play your entire career and some guys don’t make shots at the buzzer to win a game, I know it wasn’t right at the buzzer, but it’s a buzzer shot. So it’s a big time, big time shot and I’m proud of him.”
The Cardinals scored 11 straight points to take a 16-8 lead with 12:18 on the clock in the first half. The Colonels quickly responded with seven straight of their own to cut the score to just one point.
Louisville got hot from the 3-point line and used a 16-4 run to take a 42-27 advantage with just under four minutes to go. The Cards didn’t miss during the run, going 5 for 5 with three straight 3’s.
EKU scored seven of the final nine points of the half, leading a 46-37 halftime score.
Louisville outrebounded Eastern Kentucky 26-14 in the first half while shooting 42.8% from the arc.
Terrence Edwards Jr. led all scorers with 17 points on 6 of 8 shooting, including a perfect 3 for 3 clip from long range, in the opening 20 minutes.
Louisville scored the first four points after the break, but the Colonels came thundering back with a 12-2 run to make the Cardinal advantage just 52-49 by the 16-minute mark.
EKU chipped away at the Louisville lead and eventually took a lead of its own. A Noah Waterman 3-pointer at 9:28 sparked a run for the Cards where UofL scored 12 unanswered points to regain a lead of 71-61 lead with 6:17 to go in the game. The run was capped by a one-handed alley-oop by James Scott with the assist from Chucky Hepburn.
The Colonels refused to go away, retaliating with a 12-1 run to take a 73-72 lead with 2:20 remaining. Reyne Smith knocked down a 3-pointer; EKU’s George Kimble III knocked down one of his own.
Both teams missed shots in the final minute of the game, including an EKU miss around the 12 second mark. Louisville was able to get the defensive rebound and march down the court. Smith was bumped on his way to the basket and the ball wound up in the hands of Waterman who drove into the lane and made a game-winning bucket, double teamed, with just 1.2 seconds on the clock to give Louisville a 77-76 lead. In a last-ditch effort, the Colonels fouled, and Edwards Jr. made one of two free throws to make the final score 78-76.
Louisville outrebounded Eastern Kentucky 47-32 with a 21-11 edge on the offensive glass.
J’Vonne Hadley logged a double-double on the afternoon with 15 points and 10 rebounds. He added two blocks and three steals in his 36 minutes.
Scott had seven offensive boards, nine rebounds total and five points.
EKU was led in scoring by Kimble III at 24 points and Devontae Blanton at 22.
Next, Louisville men’s basketball goes into ACC action full-time beginning with North Carolina in the KFC Yum! Center on New Year’s Day at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.
