Louisville basketball falls at UNC, misses latest key road opportunity
· Yahoo Sports
CHAPEL HILL, NC — Pat Kelsey preaches “road excellence.”
“From the moment you pack your bags, it’s being meticulous with your approach,” the Louisville basketball coach said after last weekend’s win over Georgia Tech — looking forward to Monday night's showdown with North Carolina. "... You’ve got to have the right mindset when you go on the road. That’s always been the case with me and the programs that I lead."
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The 20th-ranked Cardinals (20-8, 9-6 ACC) were far from excellent at the Dean E. Smith Center. It cost them a seventh Quad 1A loss, 77-74 to the 19th-ranked Tar Heels (22-6, 10-5) — their fifth away from the KFC Yum! Center.
UNC took control of this one with a 10-0 that turned a 46-40 lead at the 17:18 mark of the second half into a 16-point advantage with 13:38 remaining in regulation. No sequence encapsulated the evening better than when Seth Trimble picked off a half-hearted skip pass from Aly Khalifa to Mikel Brown Jr. and finished the play with a breakaway dunk that elicited one big "BOOOM" from Tar Heels fans.
UofL missed 15 consecutive field goals between the 1:51 mark of the first half and the 14:27 mark of the second. To its credit: After Ryan Conwell ended the drought with a layup, Kelsey's team outscored the hosts 29-18 over the ensuing 12 minutes and change to make this a one-possession game, 74-71, with 51 seconds on the clock.
Louisville did something it didn't do often: force a stop. But Mikel Brown Jr. couldn't convert a layup attempt with 16 seconds to spare. Henri Veesaar secured the defensive rebound, forcing Sananda Fru to foul the game's leading scorer, Seth Trimble. The UNC senior guard capped a career night with two free throws, finishing with 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting.
Brown drained a 3 with less than two seconds remaining to bring the Cards within a possession again. Conwell had a chance to tie it at 77 as time expired, but his shot attempt was way off.
North Carolina was without one of the ACC’s top freshmen, Caleb Wilson. The 6-foot-10 forward, who leads the team in points, rebounds, steals and blocks per game, missed his fourth in a row due to a fracture in his left hand.
Louisville will have a chance to redeem itself Saturday afternoon, when it visits Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum for another Quad 1A game. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
The Tigers are off this week after suffering a 70-65 loss to Florida State on Feb. 21 — their fourth in a row, which dropped them to 20-8 (10-5) and 38th in the NET as of Monday.
This story will be updated.
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Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball vs North Carolina score, UofL falls short at UNC