Stanford men’s basketball falls to No. 14 Cardinals in fiery Louisville matchup
In their last game of the regular season, Stanford men’s basketball (19-12, 11-9 ACC) fell 68-48 to the No. 14 Louisville Cardinals (25-6, 18-2 ACC) at the KFC Yum! Center Saturday. Struggles with rebounds and finishing in the paint proved to be detrimental to Stanford’s performance.
Coming into the game, the energy was high in Louisville, Kentucky, with the Cardinals on a nine-game winning streak and facing Stanford on their senior night. Stanford, on the other hand, looked to bounce back from their 54-56 loss to Notre Dame on Wednesday.
The first few minutes of the game was a tough battle of possession. Stanford went back and forth with Louisville, but was able to stay even with points. Louisville, however, showed their dominance when they began to drive to the basket. The dynamic team’s mix of flashy finishes and aggression made it difficult for Stanford to stop them at the rim. With nine minutes to go in the first half, Stanford went down to 10-20 as Louisville thrived off their momentum.
Stanford struggled to keep in line with Louisville’s shooting accuracy. The Cardinal’s field goal percentage by the end of the game was 26.7 compared to Louisville’s 42.6. This was in part a result of scoring struggles from junior guard Oziyah Sellers and graduate guard Jaylen Blakes, who only scored 8 and 5 points respectively, well under their season averages.
In addition, Stanford had difficulty rebounding, both on the defensive and offensive sides. Stanford gave up a total of 14 second-chance points and 13 offensive rebounds. This allowed Louisville to push the ball down the court, leading to easy finishes on the other side of the court. While Stanford wasn’t too far behind the Cardinals in terms of defensive rebounds, they often struggled to convert due to Louisville’s speed and athleticism.
The Cardinal fought amongst a live and roaring Louisville crowd that sought to challenge their focus during foul shots and offensive plays. The game started to slip away with five minutes left in the half when Louisville was able to extend the lead to 11-29, marking their second-largest lead of the game.
At the half, the Cardinal were down 15 points, with a score of 18-33. Stanford came out of halftime looking to close the gap and focused on fighting for rebounds and increasing the movement of the ball while in possession.
Following back-to-back defensive stops by Stanford, junior forward Chisom Okpara was able to get to the basket for two layups, cutting the lead to 51-41 with eight minutes left. While it seemed like Stanford would be able to build off this, Louisville made sure to stop the momentum, driving to the basket for a flashy finish that sent the crowd into a roar and ended Stanford’s brewing run.
While Louisville was able to get most of their points inside the paint, Stanford struggled to finish at the basket. However, the Cardinal looked to score outside the arc, gaining 21 points from the three compared to Louisville’s 15.
The game marks the end of Stanford’s regular season and first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). All in all, Stanford made a large improvement this season, coming from an overall record of 14-18 to 19-12, even while navigating the challenge of moving to a new conference and adjusting to a new coach.
Head Coach Kyle Smith spoke about his pride for the team’s work this season, specifically amidst an ACC prediction they would finish 17th in the standings.
“We didn’t really pay much attention to it, we just talked about the process and just [doing] your best everyday,” Smith said in an interview with The Daily. Smith also praised the team’s focus amongst the noise and predictions from the media. “They did a really good job of staying present and trying to improve,” he said.
The team travels to Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday (Opp. TBD) to begin the ACC tournament as the 7th seed.
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