LOUISVILLE, Ky — The Ohio basketball team is no stranger to knocking off giants from the Big East, and they almost did it again Friday night at No. 7 Louisville.
A highly questionable foul called on Ohio with 20 seconds remaining allowed Louisville to eke out the 59-54 win, earning Cardinals coach Rick Pitino his 250th victory at Louisville.
Ohio and Louisville traded key baskets all night long until Louisville finally gained the upper hand to foil Ohio’s upset bid over another Big East foe.
After Ohio took a six-point lead with under four minutes to play, Louisville mounted a comeback and led by a point with less than a minute to play.
With the game clock winding down, Ohio guard Walter Offutt was called for a block on what appeared to be a clear offensive foul.
The Cardinals knocked down two free throws, and Ohio never regained the lead.
Following the game, Pitino labeled Ohio as a Big East quality team.
“This was a heck of a ball team,” Pitino said. “I knew we were going to have to fight. They have most of their players back and they know their system. Our only advantage going into it was home court.”
Despite the loss, Ohio coach John Groce said he was pleased with his team’s performance.
“We knew we were going to get hit in the mouth,” Groce said. “I just wanted to remind them to keep their head up, don’t flinch, and keep playing. Our guys did that. I thought they did that very well.”
The Bobcats played a competitive first half despite sophomore Nick Kellogg and junior Ivo Baltic getting into early foul trouble. Each picked up two early fouls and Ohio played the majority of the half without them.
The Bobcats trailed 28-23 entering the locker room, but scored the first five points of the second half to again tie the game.
As a team, fouls hindered Ohio all night long. Offutt fouled out for Ohio on the questionable block with 20 seconds left in the game and Reggie Keely had four of his own.
But, Ohio did not take its foot off the pedal and took Louisville down to the wire.
The Bobcats’ late surge was led by point guard D.J. Cooper, who finished with 16 points.
Freshman Stevie Taylor contributed 10 points for the Bobcats and Keely added 11 points and six rebounds.
For Louisville, Kyle Kuric had 16 points to lead the Cardinals in scoring. Chane Behanan added 11 points with seven rebounds and Gorgui Dieng scored 10 points with 16 rebounds.
At the nine minute mark of the second half Ohio trailed 41-32, but went on a 17-2 run to make it 49-43.
Louisville clawed back with a big three by Kuric and a dunk by Behanan. Ohio had a chance to tie the game up at 57, but T.J. Hall and Cooper both missed three point chances to tie the game in the closing seconds.
"We came in here and nobody gave us a chance," Cooper said. "We were able to do our thing. We got the lead but we weren't able to hold on. We just stuck with our system, trusted one another. There weren't many open shots, but we were able to knock down a few."
