On Saturday, January 14th, the Louisville men’s basketball team suffered a 80-59 loss to the North Carolina Tar Heels at the KFC Yum! Center. The Tar Heels outrebounded the Cardinals 40-31 and capitalized on Louisville’s turnovers, scoring 23 points off of them and 17 points on the fast break.
Louisville head coach Kenny Payne expressed disappointment in his team’s performance, stating, “I had multiple guys on the court today who didn’t compete… Off of our turnovers, they got 23 points – second-chance points they got nine. We missed 10 free throws – that’s mental. Those are mental mistakes.”
Despite building an early 15-7 lead, the Cardinals were unable to sustain their energy and focus. North Carolina went on multiple 9-0 runs and finished the half with a 37-26 lead.
Louisville guard El Ellis acknowledged the Tar Heels’ ability to convert possessions, saying, “Whenever we had a turnover, I had a turnover, I just looked back and they were at the rim finishing, and that’s how they score a lot of buckets, in transition off turnovers. So, when you’re playing them, you have to be very solid, because they’re very aggressive defensively.”
North Carolina’s Armando Bacot and D’Marco Dunn led the team in scoring with 14 points each, while Bacot also contributed 16 rebounds. Louisville’s El Ellis led his team with 22 points and 4 assists.
Louisville falls to 2-16 overall and 0-7 in the ACC, while North Carolina moves to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in the ACC. This is the first 0-7 start in conference play for Louisville since the 1939-40 season. Additionally, Louisville head coach Kenny Payne now owns a 2-16 record in his collegiate head coaching career.
In the game, the Tar Heels outrebounded the Cardinals 40-31 and capitalized on Louisville’s turnovers, scoring 23 points off of them and 17 points on the fast break. Louisville guard El Ellis acknowledged the Tar Heels’ ability to convert possessions, saying, “Whenever we had a turnover, I had a turnover, I just looked back and they were at the rim finishing, and that’s how they score a lot of buckets, in transition off turnovers. So, when you’re playing them, you have to be very solid, because they’re very aggressive defensively.”
Louisville used the starting lineup of El Ellis, Mike James, Jae’Lyn Withers, JJ Traynor, and Sydney Curry for the first game this season. This lineup is now 0-1 this season. The Cardinals jumped to a 15-7 lead with 13:28 left in the half due to a 9-0 run that lasted three minutes, but North Carolina responded with a 30-11 run to push them ahead 37-26 at the half.
In terms of individual performance, El Ellis registered 22 points, making it his 10th straight game with double-digit points and his 16th of 18 games this season. Ellis had a team-high four assists and added three rebounds in 35 minutes. Mike James, redshirt freshman, tallied eight points to go along with two rebounds and an assist. Jae’Lyn Withers, redshirt junior, score eight points and recorded a team-high eight rebounds. Sydney Curry, senior, totaled nine points and four rebounds to go with one blocked shot.
Louisville will return home to play Pitt on Wednesday night. The game will be televised on ACC Network and is scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m. ET.
