February 2020 Louisville Cardinals men's basketball
11 Louisville on Monday, keeping its ACC regular-season championship hopes not only afloat, but alive and thriving. No. 6 Florida State rallied from a dozen down to capture an all-important 82-67 victory over No.
The Seminoles trailed by eight at halftime and as many as 12 in the second frame of action against the (former) ACC-leading Cardinals before hanging a massive 50-point second-half that vanquished the Cardinals.
Louisville made just nine total field goals in the second half, shooting 9 of 28. It was a meltdown of epic proportions for Louisville, which led comfortably early but missed opportunities to extend its lead in the second half before crumbling. FSU outscored Louisville 50-27 in the second half and closed the win on a 42-16 run. Trent Forrest led the way with 16 points while Devin Vassell and M.J. Walker had 12 points each.
FSU limited its own turnovers in the second half, got Vassell involved after a sleepy opening half, then squeezed the juice out of UL's offense. Credit to Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles -- this was as much a testament to their second-half stride-hitting as Louisville's catastrophic collapse. Louisville had no answers for Florida State's length on defense.
A win for Duke would give the ACC a pair of co-leaders at the top in the final weeks of the season. The win gives Florida State an edge in the ACC standings over Louisville and, for now, over Duke pending the outcome of the Blue Devils' matchup Tuesday against Wake Forest.
Florida State (24-4, 14-3 ACC) has just three games remaining, with its next two on the road against Clemson and Notre Dame before a season finale against Boston College. Duke (23-4, 13-3 ACC) has four games left, with its final two at home.
Let's have a look at some of the key takeaways from FSU's big win over Louisville on Monday night.
Meanwhile, Louisville (23-6, 14-4 ACC) shouldn't be counted out in this race despite the L; it faces winnable games against Virginia Tech and Virginia before closing out its regular season.
Early on, little was going right for the Seminoles.
They were sloppy with the ball – committing nine first-half turnovers – while Louisville couldn't miss, shooting 51.6% from the floor and 44.4% from three in the first 20 minutes.
Each time FSU attempted to play its way back into the game early on, the Cardinals responded. When the momentum finally turned, it did in a major way.
U of L had a stretch of over nine minutes without a field goal in the second half. The Cardinals shot 32.1% after halftime.
"I've watched I can't tell you how many games. Nobody runs their offense against Florida State."
"Give Florida State credit. They're a terrific team," Louisville head coach Chris Mack said.
Meanwhile, FSU ball security improved dramatically. The Seminoles had just two second-half turnovers.
That collapse: Louisville had a case of the crumbles last year with a 23-point blown lead to Duke being the obvious example. That team's struggles have mostly stayed from this squad, but this meltdown certainly doesn't inspire confidence in the Cards moving forward. The larger issue is that Louisville keeps falling flat on big stages this season. Save for an extremely impressive road win over Duke earlier this season, it is 3-4 against KenPom top-50 teams and has two ugly losses -- to Georgia Tech and to Clemson -- glaring on the resume
