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Louisville hands Virginia second loss

Mar 8, 2015 - 4:22 AM Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - On Senior Night, Louisville honored Wayne Blackshear and junior Montrezl Harrell, who is expected to declare for the NBA Draft.

When the 16th-ranked Cardinals needed a basket with seconds remaining, however, it was little-used sophomore Mangok Mathiang lifting Louisville to a 59-57 win over No. 2 Virginia.

The Cavaliers took a 57-56 lead with 13 seconds remaining on a contested 3- pointer by Malcolm Brogdon. Out of a timeout at the other end, Mathiang took his first shot of the game, a jumper from the foul line that handed Virginia just its second loss of the season.

"What we tried to do, obviously we didn't have a lot of time to, was run a lot of motion," said Louisville coach Rick Pitino. "Mangok was the 64th option."

Harrell led the Cardinals (24-7, 12-6 ACC) with 20 points and 12 rebounds while Terry Rozier and Quentin Snider each added 11 points.

Brogdon paced Virginia (28-2, 16-2) with 17 points and Darion Atkins added 10 points and seven boards.

The Cavaliers did not take their first lead of the game until the 14:40 mark of the second half on an Atkins dunk that followed a Brogdon steal. That capped a 12-2 run for Virginia, but its lead would be brief.

Virginia needed an 8-0 run later in the half to tie the game at 52 on Evan Nolte's triple with 4:08 to play. Louisville scored the next four points, and the Cavaliers called a timeout after Brogdon's free throws that cut their deficit to 56-54 with a minute remaining.

After Harrell missed a 3, Nolte found Brogdon in the corner. With defenders closing in, Brogdon released the go-ahead shot just in time.

Virginia had just over two seconds to create a buzzer-beating shot. However, Nolte threw the long inbounds pass out of bounds, effectively ending the game.

"We didn't execute it well to give ourselves a chance," said Virginia coach Tony Bennett. "It would have been nice to at least get a shot up at the end."

After only scoring 13 points in the first half in their first meeting with Virginia, the Cardinals came out ready to attack the tough Cavaliers defense.

At 14:09, Snider's 3 put the Cardinals up 15-3. They led by as many as 14 in the first half on Harrell's dunk at 12:45, but that was followed by an 8-0 Virginia run.

Virginia's defense seemed to settle in near the midpoint of the first half, but Louisville hit five of its last seven shots and took a 30-25 lead into the locker room.

Game Notes

Virginia guard Justin Anderson missed the game after undergoing an appendectomy ... The Cavaliers had won their last five games by 10-plus points ... Including Mathiang's basket, Louisville's bench scored just four points ... Virginia will enter next week's ACC Tournament as the No. 1 seed while Louisville is the fourth-seeded team.