Analysis | U of L holds off UC-Irvine 57-55

SEATTLE – Louisville came here hoping for a fresh start and a chance to reignite this frustrating 2014-15 season.

What the Cardinals got was an absolute rock fight.

But still, when it counted most, Louisville (25-8) got a huge drive and layup from Wayne Blackshear and two go-ahead free throws from Quentin Snider to stave off a spirited upset attempt from UC-Irvine and win 57-55 here at KeyArena.

Louisville advances to the third round of the NCAA tournament and will play fifth-seeded Northern Iowa (31-3) on Sunday.

"We knew it would be a fight," U of L coach Rick Pitino said.

"(Blackshear and Snider) had to make big, tremendous plays."

GAME REWIND |U of L avoids upset, outlasts UC-Irvine 57-55

Blackshear was the key to Louisville's win, at least on offense. The 6-foot-5 senior finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, including a game-tying runner with 43 seconds left.

He took a career-high 20 shots, but two of them -- the tying one and a pivotal layup-and-a-foul with 3:33 to play -- ended up being critical in Louisville's razor-thin victory.

"I mean, that's a kid who played in the (2013) national championship game," UC-Irvine coach Russ Turner said. "He's a national champion. He made a national champion play right there, and that's probably the difference in the game."

Pitino wanted to add more to the story line, though. Beyond Blackshear and Snider, who had to carry a lot of offensive responsibility, Pitino said redshirt sophomore Mangok Mathiang's defense won Louisville the game.

Mathiang's stat line was a bit anemic. He was 0 for 3 from the field for zero points, but he had three rebounds and, most important of all, two steals. He played a major role in taking UC-Irvine's 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndiaye out of the game for long stretches of the second half.

"He made all the big plays down the stretch that we needed to make," Pitino said, "and that will never show up. You'll never write it. You will now, but I mean, if I didn't say it ..."

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Snider thrives. Thrust into a tough position to end this season, Louisville's freshman point guard has never once looked out of place. He struggled a bit against North Carolina in the ACC tournament, but not for a lack of confidence.

In his first NCAA tournament game, the Louisville native and 2014 Mr. Kentucky took smart shots, probed when he needed to and looked more than comfortable considering the stage. He was 6 of 11 from the field and pitched in 16 huge points, including two monumental free throws with 8.9 seconds to go.

"Going to the line, I just didn't really think about it," said Snider, who rarely expends more than a sentence or two per question.

Blackshear cut in: "We all believed he could make them."

Centers' mixed bag. After a week of Pitino building up the importance of his team's centers, each of them struggled on offense in Louisville's opening game, but helped on defense.

Mangok Mathiang picked up two quick fouls in the game's first two minutes. Anas Mahmoud played sparingly, and Chinanu Onuaku didn't play much, either, especially after a hard fall that appeared to shake the 6-foot-10 freshman up.

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In fairness, U of L faced a unique situation in Ndiaye, whose size forced Louisville to front the post and figure out ways to avoid the big man in the paint. Mathiang did help with creating turnovers, though, and perhaps that's all someone could ask of the three centers in this game.

"He's so big," Mathiang said. "We just had to hold our own as a team. The guards tried to do as much as they can to dig and trap."

Harrell's next challenge. Louisville's preseason All-American big man didn't have much of an impact on the second half. He finished with eight points and four rebounds and missed the only shot he attempted in the final 20 minutes. Part of that was a function of Irvine's 2-3 zone and Ndiaye, but Pitino said Harrell needed to move more in the Cards' offensive sets.

"He was standing still too much," Pitino said. "They played a box-and-one (zone) on (sophomore guard Terry Rozier), which was a great move. Then (Blackshear and Snider) had to do something about it."

Now Harrell will be matched against one of the other top power forwards in college basketball, Northern Iowa's Seth Tuttle.