CARDINALS

Analysis | UNC outlasts U of L 70-60

Jeff Greer
@jeffgreer_cj

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Rick Pitino said it Monday: His team knew how much he wanted to win Louisville's inaugural ACC tournament.

And for at least the opening 20 minutes of Thursday's quarterfinal against North Carolina, Louisville looked like a team that could do just that. But the Tar Heels, fueled by offensive rebounding and a loud home-state crowd, stormed back in the second half and topped the Cardinals with a 70-60 win at Greensboro Coliseum.

The game had 13 lead changes and nine ties, and it featured the up-tempo pace, alley-oop dunks and nerve-racking moments that came to be expected this season when Louisville and North Carolina meet.

Yet a problem that has plagued Louisville (24-8) all season popped up again and allowed UNC to pull away. Two significant scoring droughts in the second half -- both longer than four minutes -- undid the Cardinals.

GAME REWIND |Cold-shooting Cards fall to UNC

TRANSCRIPT | Pitino's post-UNC Q&A

"We let them get comfortable," said junior Montrezl Harrell, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds.

"They started offensive rebounding and we stopped running our plays. Everybody started going one-on-one."

The second half looked familiar for Louisville.

Sophomore guard Terry Rozier, who finished with 20 points, was 4 of 9 in the first half and just 2 of 11 in the second. Wayne Blackshear, who had 18 points, was 3 of 10 in the second half. The fourth scoring option, point guard Quentin Snider, missed all six of his second-half shots after starting the game 2 for 3.

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As a team, Louisville made 51.9 percent of its shots in the opening 20 minutes -- and 22.2 percent in the second 20.

Usually, Rozier said, Louisville figures out a way to overcome those droughts, using its defense to bounce back. But Thursday, he added, the Cardinals just ran out of gas, and when UNC (23-10) switched to a 2-3 zone, the Tar Heels' size and length just made matters more difficult.

"We get away from the things we were doing in the first half," Rozier said. "Maybe certain plays, being aggressive -- things like that. We get away from it. It hurt us a lot (on Thursday), and a lot of games this year. Even games we've won, it's hurt us."

Recovering for a run? Obviously the season isn't over, but Louisville came to the ACC tournament with the title game on its mind. Instead, the Cardinals need to find some answers ahead of next week's NCAA tournament.

"Not a whole lot we can do except to do a better job recruiting some shooters, because we are who we are right now," Pitino said. "We're a pretty good basketball team, but we weren't as good as Carolina tonight."

Rozier said Louisville has to get better at controlling tempo and sticking to its game plan. Harrell agreed.

"We just have to get back to what we do best," Harrell said, "causing people to turn the ball over and not turning it over ourselves."

Help at center? Mangok Mathiang, the hero from Saturday's win against Virginia, showed up on Thursday and kept the energy flowing. He still had a few instances of the old Mathiang -- a dropped alley-oop the prime example -- but he contributed a handful of hustle plays underneath that led to positive results. If he can do that on a consistent basis in March, he can give Louisville an important boost off the bench.

But the problem is that Mathiang and starting center Chinanu Onuanu are not scoring options for Louisville, and they haven't been all season. Still, Pitino on Thursday made it sound like he was finally fed up with the 5.9 points per game between U of L's two primary centers.

"I think I've got to make a change at the (center) spot to try to get more offense into our (center) position," Pitino said. "Too many doughnuts on certain nights, so we'll probably have to make a change there."