CARDINALS

U of L puts in work to top Marshall

Jeff Greer

@jeffgreer_cj

The tone and demeanor of Chris Jones and Terry Rozier after the University of Louisville's 85-67 win over Marshall implied that the Cardinals lost on Friday night.

Both spoke in hushed voices, disappointed with the Cardinals' 38-percent shooting effort that included a woeful 3 of 22 mark from 3-point range.

The 5-foot-10 Jones diagnosed the ills responsible for his shooting woes. He was 5 of 18 against Marshall. He's 13 of 44 for the season, and he thinks he's falling away or kicking his legs out too much in his shooting motion.

At the next locker over, Jones's backcourt mate Rozier explained why Louisville coach Rick Pitino was all over him for much of the game. The sophomore from Ohio was annoyed that he was missing his shots, and Pitino was perturbed that his star guard was letting the missed shots affect his defense.

"It's always good to win the game, but it was frustrating the whole night," Rozier said. "It just wasn't going for us."

Louisville's primary perimeter players – Jones, Rozier and Wayne Blackshear – were 15 of 48 from the field. Walk-on guard David Levitch's 3-pointer with 14:30 left in the game was the first long-range shot a Cardinal made.

The opening half was the first time since the Elite 8 in 2013 that Louisville went without a 3-pointer in a full 20-minute period. And the Cards made just nine of their 46 jump shots for the game.

"We got too jump-shot happy, even though they were open shots," Pitino said. "Mangok (Mathiang) and (Chinanu Onuaku) saved us a lot with offensive rebounds."

Mathiang and Onuaku, forced into tandem duty with Montrezl Harrell in foul trouble for much of the second half, cobbled together 14 points and 22 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive end.

The 6-foot-10 Onuaku, a freshman who's started each of the three games so far, recorded his second consecutive double-double.

Beyond the big guys, U of L's defense carried the load.

The Cards (3-0) forced 21 Marshall turnovers and turned them into 24 points. The game's decisive stretch, a 23-7 U of L run over the final eight minutes of the first half, put the Cards in firm control the rest of the way.

Louisville's frenetic pressure, which uses traps to accelerate opponents' decisions, yielded 41 deflections, Pitino said. During much of that eight-minute span, Marshall struggled even crossing halfcourt, throwing woebegone passes across Louisville's defense and rushing into bad shots.

The Thundering Herd made seven of their first nine shots. They were 16 of 54 after that.

"We had to win the game off of defense tonight because we weren't clicking offensively," Pitino said. "We had to wear them out."

To Jones and Rozier – and their teammates – U of L needed a game like this, a sloppy, ugly win built on defense. They missed 43 shots on Friday night, but they made 44 trips to the foul line.

The Cardinals needed a win with Harrell in foul trouble, a victory without major contributions from their All-American forward. And the funny thing is, the 6-foot-8 junior still pumped in 12 points and eight rebounds. That's a quiet night by his standards.

Louisville will take that kind of quiet night 100 times out of 100.

That's why, even with Jones and Rozier both so frustrated after the game – and they weren't alone, they were still far better for the experience. And they won, too.

"We're going to have many nights of us missing shots," Jones said. "But as long as we play better defense, we'll win the game."

Reach U of L beat writer Jeff Greer at (502) 582-4044 and follow him on Twitter (@jeffgreer_cj).