90 - 76 Louisville fans received an early Christmas present from Reyne Smith and company.
Photo by Jeff Moreland/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Louisville fans had their longstanding suspicions confirmed on Saturday afternoon: Making shots is way more fun than missing shots.
A U of L team that entered the weekend shooting 28.0 percent from three as a team buried 15-of-29 attempts from beyond the arc on their way to an impressive 90-76 road victory over Florida State. The win marked the first Cardinal triumph in Tallahassee since Jan. 10, 2018.
Reyne Smith led the outside attack, burying a season-high six triples on his way to a 26-point performance, also a season-high. Noah Watterman also found his outside stroke, connecting on 4-of-7 threes and scoring 15 points.
Terrence Edwards and Chucky Hepburn also continued to be rock solid for Pat Kelsey’s team. Both players dished out eight assists, with Edwards scoring 19 points and Heburn chipping in 16.
As it stands at this moment, Louisville’s victory in Tallahassee is a Quadrant I win, its second of the season. I know it didn’t receive the attention that the Duke or Kentucky games earlier this month did, but this was a critical Saturday for the Cardinals when it comes to keeping the dream of playing in the NCAA tournament alive.
U of L now gets Eastern Kentucky three days after Christmas before embarking on a critical four-game stretch to begin 2025. Louisville will face three of the four highest-ranked teams in the ACC on KenPom — North Carolina, Clemson and Pittsburgh — and its other game will come at Virginia, a place where U of L has not won since joining the ACC a decade ago.
This was always going to be an enormous three week stretch for this team. It got off to a hell of a start.
Props to Pat Kelsey and the fellas for bouncing back from a rivalry loss in just about the most impressive fashion possible.
