Louisville Beats Down Virginia in Charlottesville

The Cardinals snap a nine-game losing streak to the Cavaliers, and win in Charlottesville for the first time in nearly 35 years.

Louisville’s teammates swarm to help Reyne Smith up in the first half against North Carolina. Louisville beat North Carolina 83-70 at the KFC Yum! Center on the first night of ACC play. January 1, 2025 / Michael Clevenger/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Over two months after Tony Bennett announced a surprise retirement as Virginia's head coach, the Louisville men's basketball program took full advantage of his decision.

Making their first road trip of the new year, Louisville was able to emerge victorious from a place and against a team that they have rarely done so, delivering a 70-50 beatdown to Virginia on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena.

Three days removed from snapping their lengthy losing streak to UNC, the Cardinals' (10-5, 3-2 ACC) victory breaks their nine-game skid against the Cavaliers (8-6, 1-2 ACC), having not won since an 80-73 decision on Feb. 8, 2020.

It's also UofL's first win in Charlottesville since Feb. 17, 1990, snapping a nine-game road losing streak to UVA, and just their second overall. Not only that, they're just the second team in Virginia's last 63 home games to score 70 or more points at John Paul Jones Arena.

Louisville had their most successful outing ever against Virginia's well-known pace-slowing pack line defense, which is still implemented by interim head coach Ron Sanchez. They shot 43.9 percent from the field and scored 36 points in the paint, while also going 7-of-19 from deep and 13-of-14 at the free throw line.

Defensively, they also took advantage of a Virginia team that had been struggling offensively. They held them to just 37.0 percent from the floor, 5-of-26 on three-point attempts, and out-rebounded them 42-25. Outside of Andrew Rohde, Isaac McKneely and Elijah Saunders, UVA scored just nine points, and had only two points off the bench to Louisville's 34.

In just his third game back after missing six weeks with a broken left arm, Aboubacar Traore scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Reyne Smith tied Traore's team-best 15 points on five made threes, while J'Vonne Hadley scored 11 and Chucky Hepburn added 10 points and a game-high seven assists.

Louisville's defense got off to a relatively good start, holding Virginia to just 4-of-15 to start the game, but their offense lagged a bit behind right out of the gates. They hit just five of their five 12 shots, but a 4-of-5 spurt to give them a quick 7-0 run midway through the first half gave the Cardinals a chance to establish early dominance.

But they would miss their next six shots, while the Cavaliers made seven of their final 12 shots of the half - even tying things up with 4:20 until halftime after being down by as much as seven. Louisville was able to make three of their last four shots of the half to take a 32-27 advantage into the break.

When both teams returned to action for the second half, while Louisville struggled to put the game away, they also made sure that Virginia couldn't go on a run themselves. Up until the 7:18 mark of the half, Louisville's pushed their lead to as much as 11, but also saw it dwindle to as little as two points.

It wasn't until after that, where the Cardinals strung together a 18-5 run while up by seven, that they officially put a fork in the Cavaliers. UofL hit seven of their final 12 shots after opening the half going 6-of-18, while UVA started the half 4-of-7 before connecting on just five of their final 23 tries.

Next up, Louisville returns home for a short turnaround against Clemson. Tip-off against the Tigers is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 7 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Reyne Smith: Michael Clevenger - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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