NASSAU, The Bahamas – Despite an impressive first two days in the Battle 4 Atlantis, the Louisville men’s basketball program is not coming back home with some new hardware.
Matched up with Oklahoma in the event’s championship game, Louisville could not build on their momentum from their wins over Indiana and West Virginia, falling 69-64 on Friday from Imperial Arena.
Louisville had two chances to tie the game in the final 30 seconds following a missed free throw by Oklahoma on the front end of a one-and-one. Noah Waterman missed an open three from the left corner with 27 seconds left, then on the next possession with 8.1 seconds left, Chucky Hepburn had his inbounds pass tipped, with Oklahoma gaining possession on a heldball.
The Cardinals (5-2, 0-0 ACC) have now lost in the Battle 4 Atlantis’ championship in each of their three appearances in the event, losing to Duke in 2012 and Baylor in 2016. The Sooners (7-0, 0-0 SEC), picked 13th in the SEC Preseason Poll, continue on their undefeated run to start the season
Adding injury to insult, Louisville saw one of their top players have to exit the game. Kasean Pryor suffered what appeared to be a left leg injury early in the second half, and had to be taken to the locker room before eventually returning to the bench in a wheelchair.
Louisville’s struggles to shoot three-pointers and free throws have emerged as an early area of concern, and that was on display against Oklahoma. The Cards shot just 7-of-32 from deep, were 9-of-16 at the charity stripe, and shot it 38.1 percent overall. Additionally, they had 14 turnovers to 12 assists, with OU scoring 15 points off turnovers.
Defensively, Louisville showed real grit, out-rebounding Oklahoma 44-21 (including 21-4 on the offensive glass), and winning the points in the paint battle 34-22. The only issue was that they were also susceptible to the Sooners’ outside game, allowing them to go 8-of-17 from deep.
Four Cardinals cracked double figures in scoring, led by 12 points from J’Vonne Hadley and Chucky Hepburn. Oklahoma’s Jalen Moore led all scorers with 24 points.
Louisville’s defensive intensity against Indiana and West Virginia to start the Battle 4 Atlantis was elevated, but this was an area where they struggled over the first half of play. They allowed Oklahoma to got 7-of-14 from deep, shoot 12-of-25 percent from the field and assist on 10 of their 12 shots while only committing three turnovers.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals weren’t super crisp on the offensive end either to start the game, committing seven turnover in the first eight minutes of the game while connecting on just five of their first 12 shot attempts. Louisville shot marginally better down the stretch of the first half, but routinely struggled to generate quality looks, and wound up going into halftime trailing 39-32.
After the break, Louisville struggled to close the gap between them and Oklahoma, not being able to string together the offensive and defensive possessions to make a run. They were able to tie the game with roughly five minutes left, but closed the half on a 3-of-15 shooting stretch after seeming to get a little momentum on that side of the court to start the period.
Next up, Louisville returns home from The Bahamas for a showdown against Ole Miss as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge. Tip-off against the Rebels is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 9:00 p.m. EST.
(Photo of J’Vonne Hadley: Kevin Jairaj – Imagn Images)
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