PITTSBURGH – Making the trek up north for a marquee ACC showdown at Pitt, the Louisville men’s basketball program earned their biggest win of the Pat Kelsey era thus far, leaving the Petersen Events Center with an 82-78 victory on Saturday.

The Cardinals (12-5, 5-1 ACC) trailed by one heading into the final three minutes of the game, but hit four of the game’s final five baskets.

Reyne Smith drilled a three to give UofL a brief advantage, then after a pair of free throws from the Panthers’ (12-4. 3-2 ACC) Ishmael Leggett to tie it, Smith hit midrange jumped and another three push Louisville’s lead to five with 1;20 left.

Leggett added a three of his own with 1:05 left to make it a two-point game, but a layup from Chucky Hepburn with eight seconds left iced the game. Louisville went 4-of-5 in the final three minutes, while Pitt went 1-for-5.

With the Panthers entering the matchup sporting a No. 22 ranking in the NET and No. 27 in KenPom, the Cardinals take down the highest-ranked team in both metrics since a 79-73 win at Duke – who ranked 6th and 5th, respectively – on Jan. 18, 2020. Louisville also hands Pitt their first home loss of the season.

Additionally, Louisville extends their winning streak to six consecutive, which is their longest since winning 10 in a row from Jan. 7, 2020 to Feb. 8, 2020, and snap their five-game losing streak to Pitt. Kelsey also matches the career win total at Louisville of his predecessor, Kenny Payne, in 47 fewer games.

Both former members of the old Big East, Saturday’s matchup was reminiscent of the gritty and physical defensive play in that league. Louisville finished the game shooting 45.6 percent despite an 11-of-24 showing on layups and a 13-of-35 performance on threes, while Pitt was just 43.6 percent from the floor despite a 10-of-21 mark from beyond the arc.

While both teams got plenty of trips to the free throw line, Louisville struggled to capitalize. They went just 7-of-15 at the charity stripe, while Pitt was 20-for-22.

That being said, the Cardinals’ victory was powered primarily due to their prowess on the backboards. They out-rebounded the Panthers 44-31, including a 17-5 mark on the offensive end for 22 second chance points.

Smith led all scorers with 25 points on 9-of-15 shooting and 7-of-11 on threes, while Hepburn came within striking distance of a triple-double with 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Terrence Edwards Jr. and J’Vonne Hadley also cracked double figures in scoring with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

Louisville might have scored the first five points of the game, but they got off to a disjointed start against against Pitt. After that opening spurt, the Panthers countered with an 18-5 run after making seven of their first 12 shots of the contest.

But after only going 2-of-9 to start the game, the Cardinals finally woke up and began to find their groove on both ends of the floor. They shot 12-of-26 for the remainder of the half, then on the defensive side, held Pitt to an over six-minute scoring drought where there missed seven straight attempts, combining to produce a 14-0 run to put UofL up by six with 7:36 until haltime.

Some subsequent lapses on the defensive side allowed Pitt to connect on six of their last eight shots of half, but Louisville was still able to keep them mostly at arm’s length to head into the break with a 35-34 advantage.

The Cardinals certainly struggled to open up the second half, only hitting four of their first 15 shots after halftime. But thanks to the Panthers’ own streaky shooting, they only trailed by as much as five with 12:21 left in the game.

From then on, Louisville caught absolute fire, hitting 13 of their final 18 shots of the game, including a 7-of-9 mark on threes. After shooting just 40.0 percent in the opening half to Pitt’s 48.1 percent, the Cards connected on 51.5 percent after halftime to the Panthers’ 39.3 percent.

Even still, Pitt still held a one-point advantage heading into the final three minutes. However, the Panthers hit just one of their final five shots, while the Cardinals were 4-for-5. This included three basket by Smith, two of which were threes, and a layup by Hepburn with eight seconds left to ice the game.

Next up, Louisville stays on the road and heads even farther up north, traveling to upstate New York for a matchup at Syracuse. Tip-off against the Orange is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of James Scott: Jamie Rhodes – Imagn Images)

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