Louisville puts scare into No. 7 Virginia before falling, 61-58

Nearing the end of what has been, to put it mildly, a season to forget, Louisville nearly pulled off what would have been one of the biggest in-conference upsets in the history of the ACC.

The Cardinals led Virginia by as many as 9-points in the first half and had a chance to take the seventh-ranked Cavaliers to overtime. A disorganized final possession ultimately resulted in an off-balanced miss from three by Kamari Lands and a 61-58 triumph for UVA.

Facing one of the best defensive teams in the country, Louisville limited its turnovers to 10 and shot a solid 8-of-20 (40.0 percent) from beyond the arc. That was enough to keep things interesting in a game that started with a 16.5-point spread, but unfortunately not quite enough to keep the Cards from falling to 3-23 overall and 1-14 in league play.

El Ellis once again led the way for U of L, scoring a game-high 21 points. Jae’Lyn Withers chipped in 12 points and Mike James added 10.

Louisville is just 2-16 in games against Virginia since joining the ACC in 2014-15, and has lost 15 of their last 16 games against the Cavaliers.

This would have been, without question, one of the funniest wins in the history of Louisville basketball, and I hate that it didn’t happen. Props to the guys for making things much, much more interesting than most of us (myself definitely included) thought they’d be heading into the evening.