CARDINALS

U of L runs past Pitt 69-56

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj

There were Chinanu Onuaku post-ups and Quentin Snider pull-ups and Anton Gill fast-break dunks and ...

Wait, what?

Yes, you read that right. The ninth-ranked University of Louisville basketball team held off a feisty challenge from visiting Pittsburgh and won 69-56 on Wednesday night, and the role players who'd frustrated U of L so much on offense woke up at the perfect time.

In Louisville's previous two games -- a Feb. 3 win at Miami and Saturday's loss at Virginia -- only four players scored a point. Nothing from the starting center. Nothing from the bench. Just scoring from Chris Jones, Terry Rozier, Wayne Blackshear and Montrezl Harrell.

READ MORE | Game Rewind: Cards surge, beat Pitt with run

And while Harrell had the game of the night -- 28 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks -- and his 21st career double-double, the contributions from Louisville's not-so-common scorers stood out.

"I'm really, really happy," U of L coach Rick Pitino said. "We got a big lift tonight from guys that don't normally play."

Snider, a freshman point guard, had his best game of the season, looking confident with the ball in his hands and the most tuned-in he's been on defense since arriving on campus. He even supplanted Jones during a key stretch of the second half, finishing with four points.

"Playing against Chris and Terry in practice, learning from them is what's making me better," Snider said. "That's the main thing about (Pitino): He wants me to be more aggressive. That's what I tried to do tonight."

Onuaku was impressive, too, making his first field goal since Louisville's Jan. 28 win at BC. The freshman big man hadn't scored in the past two games.

And leave it to Gill, the soft-spoken sophomore, to thunder in a momentum-changing dunk and let out a primal scream into the crowd.

If that didn't surprise anyone, then surely Anas Mahmoud's from-the-weakside swat in the second half to persist Louisville's 22-2 run to put Pitt away did.

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But all of that is what Louisville (20-4, 8-3 in the ACC) needed. Just a little extra juice. And the youngsters provided it on Wednesday. For some, it's about time. For U of L, it was the perfect time.

No Blackshear. We saw Wednesday night what it looks when Louisville doesn't have one of its four core players. Senior wing Wayne Blackshear suffered a hip pointer, a painful contusion in the pelvic/hip area, in workouts earlier Wednesday and aggravated it when he turned his body to run early in the first half. He was available for a return if necessary, but it appears that U of L was comfortable trying to win without him. Anton Gill and Shaqquan Aaron got the majority of the work in his place.

After the game, Blackshear said center Mangok Mathiang kneed him in the gut to prompt the injury, and that he arrived early at the Yum Center to receive treatment and test his hip out. The injury, for now, is a "day-to-day thing," Blackshear said.

Points from the 5 spot? Wednesday was the most confident Chinanu Onuaku has looked on offense since ... maybe since he arrived last summer. He posted up early on and finished off a nice spin move. Louisville ran another set play for Montrezl Harrell, and Harrell passed out of the double team to a cutting Onuaku, who finished in traffic. He tallied four points and three rebounds. That's important for Louisville, a team that averages just 8.9 points per game from its centers, which ranks 341st in the nation. There are 351 Division I teams.

No 3-pointers. Just an odd statistic to pass along: Wednesday night's win was the first time since 1992 that Louisville won a game without making a 3-pointer. The Cardinals were 0 for 4, and only tried one 3 in the first half.

"Who needs a 3 when you're getting dunks and back-door cuts?" Pitino said.

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NC STATE at NO. 9 LOUISVILLE

4 p.m. Saturday, KFC Yum! Center

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