Padgett helps Cardinals past Irish to remain atop the Big East

In case you haven’t heard or seen for yourself by now, these Louisville Cardinals are pretty damn good. Just ask Georgetown. Or Pittsburgh. Or Marquette. And now, you can ask Mike Brey and Notre Dame.

No. 13 Louisville notched their 13th conference victory and ran their overall mark to 23-6, with a 90-85 win over No. 17 Notre Dame on Thursday night. In a key match up for both teams, the Cardinals prevailed, tallying their eight consecutive win and seventh straight win at Freedom Hall. While the Hoyas statistically remain the league’s best defensive unit, much like how the standings resemble, the Cardinals are right there with Georgetown. They held the Hoyas to 51 points in a win a few weeks back, and stifled Marquette, holding the Golden Eagles to under 60 points twice. In their last five home games, the Cardinals have held their opponents to a paltry 51.8 ppg. Though the 85 points Notre Dame scored was the most points Louisville surrendered all season, don’t be duped into believing the Cardinals didn’t have it on defense.

For the outset, the Irish were shaken, like a frightened deer in headlights. Notre Dame faced first half deficits of 14-4, 22-8, and the largest deficit, 32-16, through the first 20 minutes. Louisville swarmed Notre Dame, forcing the Irish into 16 first half turnovers and a miserable 1-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. The Irish trailed 42-27 at the break, their struggles away from the Joyce Center well on their to continue. The Irish

As hard as it was for Notre Dame to embrace such a lousy start, it was even harder for Notre Dame to devise a game plan against Cardinals center David Padgett. In fact, the Irish never came up with one. Padgett dropped a season-best 26 points. Padgett proved exactly how vital a cog he is to Louisville’s success. The Irish saw plenty of Padgett early on. On Louisville’s first eight possessions, Padgett touched the ball seven times. He did it all. Scoring, rebounding, dishing out pretty assists to his teammates, setting screens. In the first half, Padgett was on the floor for 13 minutes and the Cardinals scored 40 points. Without him, they only scored two.

Louisville topped Notre Dame, but the Irish can’t say it was because of Luke Harangody. Harangody posted a ridiculous career-high 40 points and snared 12 rebounds for his 17 th double-double of the season. His 40 points were the most from an Irish basketball player in nearly 25 years. In the first half, Harangody was 7-of-14 from the field; the rest his Irish mates were a dreadful 5-of-22, with the Notre Dame backcourt going 0-for-10. Much like the brow beatings they were dealt on the road by Marquette and Georgetown, and the slim loss to UConn, the supporting cast around Harangody failed to show up. Ryan Ayers had a quiet 17 points off the bench, the only other Irish player to score in double figures. The Cardinals locked down Irish guards Kyle McAlarney and Tory Jackson. The duo combined for just 10 points on 4-of-21 shooting. Despite playing 39 minutes, McAlarney was 3-of-14 from the field, 1-of-8 from beyond the arc. He attempted on just four shots in the first half, misfiring on all four attempts.

While Padgett was the star for the Cardinals, unlike Harangody, he wasn’t the lone star in the sky. Four other players for Louisville scored in double figures. Terrence Williams and Earl Clark added 14 points apiece, and Andre McGee and Edgar Sosa each had 10. Louisville was unconscious from 3-point land in the first half, draining 7-of-10 attempts.

The Irish put a scare into Louisville late, using a 13-3 run to pull within six, 78-72 and then with five, 86-81. The run, as imagined, was sparked by Harangody, who sunk three 3’s in 71 seconds to make things interesting. Entering the game, Harangody never made a 3-point shot, going 0-for-4 in his short career.

Louisville hosts Villanova in their home finale on Sunday, followed by what’s shaping up to be the game of the year in the Big East next weekend. In a rematch from earlier this month, Louisville will head to Georgetown next Saturday, March 8 th, with the Big East regular season crown potentially hanging in the balance.

by Frank Minniti
BigEast-fans.com Director of Content

> More Big East basketball news & headlines

> Follow the Big East Basketball Tournament online with Big East Fans!