Louisville outlasts Notre Dame in 2OT for first win in South Bend since 1994

Louisville wins in South Bend for the first time since 1994.

In every way but one, Tuesday night’s Louisville-Notre Dame game felt like a late night replay all of us have seen enough times to recall every line reflexively.

The Cardinals and Fighting Irish played a back and forth contest that couldn’t be settled over the customary 40 minutes. Or over the less customary 45 minutes.

After two overtimes, Louisville emerged with an incredibly hard-fought 82-78 win. With that triumph came the program’s first victory over Notre Dame in South Bend since 1994, a streak spanning six games and three conferences.

Of course extra periods are nothing new in this series. From 1994 through 2013 Notre Dame and Louisville met 13 times, and seven of those contests went to overtime. Three of those games featured multiple overtimes, including epic five overtime game from Purcell Pavilion in 2013.

Despite allowing Notre Dame to stay in the game with a whopping 26 offensive rebounds, Louisville ultimately prevailed in large part because of the hometown duo of senior guard Quentin Snider and junior forward Ray Spalding.

With Notre Dame All-American Bonzie Colson still sidelined by a broken foot, Spalding took full advantage. He played a team-high 47 minutes, connected on 10 of 16 field goal attempts, and scored a career-high 23 points to go along with a team-high 12 rebounds. Snider added 22 points and seven assists, while also serving as the effective trigger on most of Louisville’s most crucial possessions. His two free-throws in the final seconds of the second overtime sealed the U of L victory.

Snider also became Louisville’s 68th all-time 1,000-point scorer when he connected on a three-pointer early in the first half.

There’s more to be said, but for now all I’ve got is woooooooooooo and a Darius Perry chest pump.

And also this.

David Padgett has never lost a game at Notre Dame. People forget that.