PITTSBURGH, Pa. – University of Louisville men’s basketball snapped a five-game losing streak to Pitt with a gritty 82-78 victory in the Petersen Events Center on Saturday afternoon.

Louisville moves to 5-1 in ACC play for the first time since 2019-20, and extends its winning streak to six games, including three road league games. The win also handed Pitt it’s first home loss in 15 games, a streak extending back to the 2023-24 season.

“That was a great college basketball game,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “It’s a tough environment. They’re a really good team. They’re very talented. Coach [Jeff] Capel does an unbelievable job putting those very talented pieces in places that make you make tough decisions defensively. They have a great scheme. They’re tough. We knew it was going to be a really tough game. The environment here was electric. I thought it was awesome. Hats off to the Oakland Zoo. Trying to recruit for Pitt, but give credit where credit was due. They were phenomenal. That’s a great college atmosphere. I’m proud of our guys. They showed a lot of resilience. There were a lot of times during the game where they punched, but our guys responded on many occasions, both offensively and defensively. They answered the call and answered the challenge that they presented.”

Louisville used a new lineup of Chucky Hepburn, J’Vonne Hadley, Terrence Edwards Jr., Reyne Smith and James Scott for the first time this year. It’s the sixth time the Cardinals have used a new lineup – they’re now 4-2 when using a new lineup.

The Cardinals scored the first five points of the day and the Panthers quickly responded with a 10-0 run of their own to double Louisville’s point total.

Pitt went up by eight, but Hepburn put a stop to the Panthers with an and-one bucket. The Panthers marched down and hit their third three-pointer of the day, but Louisville didn’t let up.

Edwards Jr. hit Scott for an alley-oop that sparked a 14-0 run for Louisville that elapsed four and a half minutes. In that run, Edwards dished out two assists and contributed five points for the Cards, helping UofL to a 24-18 lead with 7:36 to go in the half.

The Panthers chipped away at the Louisville advantage and ultimately cut it to just pone point on three occasions in the final two minutes. The Cardinals never let Pitt get over the hump and held on to a 35-34 lead at halftime.

Although Louisville scored the first five points out of the break, Pitt was quick to counteract flip the script. Starting at 15:46, the Panthers scored eight straight points to flip a five-point deficit into a three-point lead at 46-43.

Louisville worked to keep Pitt within a few possessions, and eventually tied it up multiple times and regained the lead by 6:06. The Cards strung together seven straight points to take a 67-62 lead with 5:18 to go in the game.

Pitt refused to go away and eventually put together a 6-0 run of its own with three free throws and a huge 3-pointer to take a 73-72 lead with just three minutes on the clock. Louisville’s Smith hit a go-ahead 3-pointer off an inbounds play, hit another jumper at 2:04 and hit a deep 3-pointer with 1:20 to go to keep the Cardinals ahead.

The Panthers hit a 3 with just over a minute to go to cut the score to 80-78, but Louisville played lockdown defense and stalled on offense to ultimately win the game 82-78.

Louisville is now 10-1 when leading at halftime and 12-0 when leading with five minutes to play under Kelsey.

The Cardinals outrebounded the Panthers 44-31 with a 17-5 edge on the offensive glass.

Louisville turned its shooting around in a major way in the second half, going 4 of 19 from long range in the first half before making 9 of 16 attempts in the second half.

Smith scored a game-high 25 points on 7 of 11 shooting from deep range and 9 of 15 from the floor overall. James led the Cards in rebounding with nine boards while adding eight points and a steal in his 28 minutes.

Jaland Lowe was the leading scorer for Pitt with 24 points after going a perfect 13 for 13 at the free throw line. He added six assists, two rebounds and a steal.

Louisville stays on the road and goes to Syracuse for a mid-week game on Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.