Louisville narrowly avoids disaster against Eastern Kentucky

Noah Waterman’s driving layup with 1.2 seconds to play helped Louisville avoid what would have been a disastrous loss to Eastern Kentucky on Saturday afternoon inside the KFC Yum Center.

Trailing by one in the closing moments, U of L Colonels star Devontae Blanton forced in a missed jumper. Reyne Smith then took to the left side of the floor where he almost lost the ball before finding Waterman who also almost lost the ball. After regaining his footing, Waterman drove to the rim for a contested bucket that would give the Cardinals a 1-point lead.

A steal and a free throw by Terrence Edwards would put the game’s score at its final margin.

The end-of-game sequence allowed the Cardinals to avoid what would have been a crippling loss in the game they were favored to win by 21.5 points. Instead, they enter the new year with an 8-5 record and only losses to quality opponents on their resume.

Still, it was more than a little nerve-wracking that Louisville couldn’t put away an EKU team that nearly knocked off the Cardinals for the first time since 1963.

After knocking down nine three-pointers in the first half, U of L could only manage two makes from deep in the second frame. The most important of those came from Smith, whose three with just under two minutes left put the Cards ahead, 75-73. EKU’s George Kimble, who finished with a game-high 24 points, promptly answered with a three of his own to set up the game’s frantic final moments.

I don’t know if it was the holiday break or what, but the energy was down, the defense was downright bad, and the head-scratching unforced turnovers were back.

We are extremely fortunate that this was not a Quad 4 loss that would have completely stalled our resume right before we begin our dive into the heart of conference play.

The most crucial two-week stretch of the season — one that features games against North Carolina, Virginia, Pitt and Clemson — is upon us. Handle it well and we can dream March Madness dreams as we head deeper into January and February. Handle it the way we handled things today and the season shifts to “keep fighting, see how many wins we can scrape together and maybe we can make a crazy run in Charlotte” mode.