Pitt bounces Louisville out of Big East Tournament in overtime

#7 Pittsburgh 76 - #2 Louisville 69

For the third straight time in the Big East tournament, Louisville has failed to find their way past Pittsburgh. In a heavyweight-style, punch-and-counterpunch fight, Pittsburgh produced more blows than Louisville, knocking off the Cardinals 76-69 in overtime on Thursday night in the Big East quarterfinals.

Sam Young powered Pitt with 21 points and 12 rebounds, and DeJuan Blair added 16 points and eight boards, helping the Panthers improve to 4-0 at Madison Square Garden this season. Pittsburgh has beaten Duke, St. John’s, Cincinnati, and Louisville at MSG this season, and the Panthers have now won 21 games in MSG since 2000-01. Pittsburgh’s backcourt mates Levance Fields and Ronald Ramon combined for 26 points and 10 assists, leading Pitt to their third straight victory and fifth in their past six games.

Earl Clark paced Louisville with 19 points and nine rebounds off the bench, and Juan Palacios, David Padgett and Derrick Caracter each finished with 11. As the frontcourt pair of Palacios and Padgett carried the Cardinals’ starters, their backcourt, along with Terrence Williams, struggled mightily. Williams only had five points on 2-of-10 shooting, and Louisvilles’ backcourt tandem of Andre McGee and Jerry Smith just couldn’t make shots. Smith finished with seven points on 1-of-10 shooting, and McGee was held scoreless, missing all six attempts. Together, the trio of Williams-McGee-Smith had just 12 points combined on a horrific 3-of-26 shooting.

Pitt’s largest lead was 53-45 with 8:43 left, but a quick 8-0 run by Louisville pulled everything even at 53, and neither team had larger than a two point lead the rest of the way in regulation. In overtime, the Panthers reached a new gear, and swarmed the Cardinals. Pitt delivered a tremendous knockout blow, scoring 12 of the first 14 points to start overtime, and reached their largest lead of the night, 74-64, with 30 seconds to play. Pitt excelled down the stretch at the free throw line, hitting nine straight free throws in the end, rebounding from their awful 5-of-12 start from the line.

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This was the third straight year Pitt eliminated Louisville from the Big East tournament. In 2006, Pitt prevailed by five, 61-56, and last year, by six, 65-59. It was the second year in a row Louisville earned the No.2 seed in the Big East tournament, but similar to last season, the Cardinals were unable to advance to the third day of the tournament. Louisville has lost three of four games in the Big East tournament since joining the Big East in 2005.

Pittsburgh moves on to the semifinal round on Friday night to play either the No.3 seed Notre Dame, or the No.6 seed Marquette.

by Frank Minniti
BigEast-fans.com Director of Content

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