Louisville Cardinals snap losing streak with two point win over Miami

Rick Pitino moved his Louisville Cardinals squad to 21-6 overall and 9-5 in ACC play after holding off the Miami Hurricanes and snapping the team’s first losing streak of the season after a 55-53 win inside of the KFC Yum! Center.

Despite their .500 conference record, Miami was ready to play today. The Hurricaines jumped out to an early 13-5 lead at 14:46 mark of the first half. Miami kept up their intensity, leading 18-9 with 12:24 remaining in the first twenty-minutes. The remainder of the first half was still all Hurricaines, as they held a 29-19 lead over Louisville at halftime.

Louisville Cardinals

Coach Pitino must of gave his players a fiery pep talk during halftime, as the Cardinals went on an 11-3 run to open up the second half and made Miami call a timeout. Miami’s scoring drought and UofL’s 17-3 run was ended with 14:31 remaining in the game after a three pointer by Deandre Burnett. The Yum! Center was rocking after Teddy Rozier threw up an alley-oop pass to Montrezl Harrell, who threw it down. The Hurricaines rallied the remainder of the contest, but didn’t have enough left in the tank to pull of the upset, as the Louisville Cardinals escaped with a 55-53 win over the U.

Harrell led the way for the Cardinals today, leading all scorers with 21 points and 14 rebounds while playing the entire game.

Sheldon McClellan led his Miami Hurricaine team with his 17 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assist performance. Tonye Jekiri contributed as well, scoring 13 points and grabbing 15 boards.

Louisville is back in action on Monday at 6 p.m. (CT) at Georgia Tech (12-15, 3-12 ACC). Game will be televised on ESPN.