UofL in Battle 4 Atlantis championship game

On By Littum

Louisville basketball assistant coach Thomas Carr opposed the scout for the Cardinals’ Thanksgiving Day game West Virginia in the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals.

Before tipoff, he told radio play-by-play announcer Jody Demling, “In tournament style like this, your culture wins.”

First-year head coach Pat Kelsey saw that on display when, after cozying up with his staff, he went to address his team before overtime in U of L’s 79-70 comeback win over the Mountaineers at . Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas – only to find that his veteran players had already spoken for him.

“I didn’t even have to say anything,” Kelsey said. “Sometimes, as a coach, the best coaching you can do is just get out of the way. These guys really stepped up.”

Chucky Hepburn shined best, scoring 10 of the Cards’ 17 points in overtime to finish with a career-best 32 on 8-for-12 shooting (14-for-17 from the free throw line) and six steals in the game — one off the high-water mark, he put Wednesday, during a lopsided upset in no. 15 in Indiana.

Afterwards, the senior from Omaha, Wisconsin, said this on ESPN: “I’ve been kind of on the back seat for a long time and it’s time to show the world who Chucky Hepburn is. I’m a bucket-getter, one of the best point guards in the country, and I stand by that.

It was a moment that would have given a great lead into this story; but as the best floor generals are apt to do, Hepburn dished out praise up and down the roster as he sat down in the postgame press conference.

“My team found ways to dig deep,” he said. “The whole team stepped up.”

It’s culture, and it won.

After trailing for nearly 25 minutes and by as many as 11 points in the first half of a game Kelsey described as “a rock fight” and “old-school Big East,” Louisville rallied with nine unanswered points in 1 minute, 36 seconds to turn a 50-45 deficit at the nine-minute mark of the second half into a 54-50 advantage with 7:24 left.

When West Virginia answered with a basket to pull within two, the Cards went on a 7-0 run to take what was then their largest lead of the afternoon, 59-52. Then they grew cold; and the Mountaineers scored eight straight to take a 60-59 lead into the final two minutes.

“We tried to take advantage of some mismatches with some pick and rolls,” Kelsey said of the near-collapse, “and I could have done a better job of being more aware of who I wanted to put the ball screen on. We just messed with it .up and I’m kicking myself for the next few possessions.

“So I could have done some things better and different; and then, down the other end, I just felt like we weren’t ourselves defensively. We played the moment — the score or whatever — and we didn’t lock down in our defensive principles We got a little bit, as we call it, fluffy.”

After the go-ahead shot, Hepburn, a 73.1% career free throw shooter who entered the game 12 for 13 so far at U of L, went to the charity stripe with 31.8 seconds on the clock and a chance to put his team up. up by one point.

He made the first one, then missed the second.

“I told my teammates, ‘I’m going to make it up,'” Hepburn said.

Hepburn first fulfilled his promise by helping his teammates force a shot-clock violation on WVU’s final possession of regulation. Asked what went wrong there, Mountaineers leading scorer Javon Small said, “I was trying to make a play. They had blown the ball screen the whole time and I just turned the ball over.”

Surprisingly, West Virginia looked like it had the fresher legs when the ball was tipped despite having less than 24 hours to recover from Wednesday’s 86-78 overtime upset of No. 4 Gonzaga. Louisville trailed 28-24 at halftime, with more turnovers (10) than baskets (nine) after it capped its blowout of the Hoosiers by scoring on 67.6% of its second-half possessions. But coach Darian DeVries shrugged off the notion that his team “ran out of gas.”

“Louisville did a good job, made some plays,” he said, noting the Cards’ 33-12 advantage in free throw attempts and Hepburn’s stellar performance — “I thought he did a great job controlling the game on the offensive end. “

Three other U of L players joined Hepburn in double figures. The first was Reyne Smith with 15 points, eight of which kept the team afloat in an otherwise dismal first half. The senior guard made four of his seven 3s.

Then there was Kasean Pryor with 13 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Terrence Edwards Jr. went after 10 and seven respectively. The rest of the players who saw the court combined for nine points on 3-for-13 shooting.

The Cards finished +11 in second-chance points (21-20) and +7 in points off turnovers, scoring 14 to the Mountaineers’ 16 while holding them to just seven of their 15.

“You can see the competitive nature of our players — just a bunch of crazy dogs out there fighting for every rebound, every loose ball and just playing for each other,” Kelsey said. “I’m lucky to be their coach.”

Louisville will play Oklahoma in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship. Tips are set for Friday at 5:30 p.m.

The Cards also reached the tournament title game in their two previous appearances in it, in 2012 and 2016, but lost to Duke and Baylor, respectively.

This is U of L’s first four-game winning streak since 15-27. November 2021. And Hepburn feels like it’s just getting started.

“I love playing with this team,” he said. “This is probably the most confidence I’ve ever had in college with the ball in my hands. Being able to have a coaching staff and teammates that believe in you gives me even more confidence to show that I’m a of the best point guards in the country.”

Reach Louisville basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on the X at @brooksHolton.