The Louisville Cardinals led most of the way but ultimately fell 80-75 in overtime at Florida State on Saturday.
Louisville led by 9 early after Florida State missed its first 10 shots of the game. The Seminoles would regain the lead before Louisville went back up by 6 at the break. The Cards led 43-42 at the 12 minute mark when Ryan McMahon hit 3 straight three-pointers to extend Louisville’s lead to 10 at 8:42 in the 2nd half.
From there, Louisville turned the ball over 8 times in the final 10 minutes of regulation and the game went to overtime after a Trent Forrest layup tied it at 65 with 34 seconds on the clock. The Cards wouldn’t score for the first 2:39 of the extra period and went down 8 points. They would use a late run to cut it to 1 and even had a shot to tie it with 9 seconds on the clock, but Florida State prevailed in the top 25 battle.
Mfiondu Kabengele led the Seminoles with 22 points and 7 rebounds. Terance Mann added 20 and 4. Christen Cunningham led the way for Louisville with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Louisville turned the ball over a total of 23 times Saturday. Florida State only shot 38 percent from the field on 6 assists; the Noles had 11 steals on the defensive end.
This was a huge missed opportunity for Louisville. The Cards were outplayed, out-coached and out-hustled in the 2nd half after going up by 10 late in the game. Chris Mack’s team simply did not have an answer for Florida State’s full court press in the 2nd half, and that’s what allowed the Seminole’s to get back into the game. I’ll try to not overreact after losing on the road to the 22nd ranked team in America, but this was an inexcusable loss that should have never happened. Louisville was clearly the better team on both ends of the floor for the better part of 30 minutes, but were unable to finish it out on the road.
The Cardinals now sit at 17-7 overall and 8-3 in the ACC. That’s still a good place to be with 4 weeks left in the season. Considering Louisville will be heavy underdogs in 3 of its final 7 games (Duke, UVA, at UVA), this was one you really wanted to win. That’s now 2 out of 3 losses since starting ACC play 7-1. There’s no need to panic, though. Florida State has given many teams problems this season. The Cards will have to forget this game and get ready to compete down the stretch in conference play.
Up Next: 2nd ranked Duke comes to town for a matchup Tuesday night at 9:00 ET.
