Ohio State vs. Louisville: ACC-Big Ten Challenge 2014 Score and Twitter Reaction

 Louisville showed off its defensive prowess with an impressive 64-55 victory over Ohio State in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge on Tuesday night.

The Buckeyes were down 17 points at halftime and as many as 19 in the first half, but a furious comeback made things interesting late. However, the comeback fell just short as the Cardinals were able to escape with the win.

Wayne Blackshear led the way for Louisville with 22 points thanks to 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Montrezl Harrell earned his second double-double in a row with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

D'Angelo Russell was once again the star for Ohio State, leading the team with 17 points. He went 6-of-20 from the field, but he helped out with seven assists, six rebounds and two steals. As ESPN's Jeff Goodman noted, he also was especially impressive late in the game:

This is compared to a poor showing in the early going, highlighted by Gary Parrish of CBS Sports:

Still, the story was the great defensive work by Louisville. Ohio State—which made 56.7 percent of its shots coming into this game—was limited to just 5-of-25 from the field in the first half and shot 30.4 percent overall.

As Dana O'Neil of ESPN noted, the upgrade in competition had a lot to do with this change:

Although the Cardinals only made 35.2 percent of their own attempts, it was enough to secure a close win.

Based on the start, this game seemed like it was going to be a blowout. The home fans did not disappoint after Louisville head coach Rick Pitino discussed his high expectations for the atmosphere in his press conference:

"

I think tomorrow's game—and we've had a lot of big games at the Yum!—tomorrow will be the best atmosphere that we've had since the Yum! Center's been built. There's a lot of reasons for that. We have a great opponent coming in here. If you look at their statistics, it's about as good as it gets offensively. It's the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, national television, late game, first year in the ACC, coming off a great football victory, the spirit's very high in this town and it'll be a great atmosphere.

"

The team responded as well, going up double digits within the first 10 minutes while Ohio State struggled to make any shots. 

Brian Hamilton of Sports Illustrated discussed the poor shooting early:

It surprisingly got worse for Ohio State as the shooting problems were exacerbated by the inability to hold onto the ball, as noted by Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal:

Doug Gottlieb of CBS Sports explained what made the Cardinals defense so good:

On the other end of the court, Blackshear was taking care of business with 16 points and three made three-point shots. ESPN's Myron Medcalf joked about the player struggling to live up to expectations earlier in his career:

Still, his contributions helped the Cardinals go up 35-18 in a half that was even more one-sided than the score.

The Buckeyes finally started to show signs of life in the second half thanks to some ugly play by Louisville in the first five minutes. Eric Crawford of WDRB provided some details:

As the home team continued an extended scoring drought, Ohio State slowly crawled its way back into contention by moving the ball around and getting easier shots. 

ESPN's Jeff Borzello echoed the shock from everyone watching (even though many likely stopped):

A Kam Williams four-point play cut the score to 49-41, while a pair of big plays from Russell continued to lower the deficit. Eric Bossi of Rivals.com points out the defensive strategy that stymied Louisville in the second half:

The lead was down to three before Terry Rozier nailed a three-pointer with 47 seconds left to go back up six. Although the free-throw shooting remained suspect, Louisville hit enough to survive with a win.

This game displayed plenty of flaws for both sides, but it also showcased the toughness for the players involved to fight through poor performances. These factors will be extremely important as they look for success in conference play.

Things get much easier for Ohio State going forward with four home games in a row against inferior opponents, beginning with a matchup against Colgate on Dec. 6. The only remaining highlight on the non-conference schedule is a game against North Carolina in Chicago.

Louisville will have a quick turnaround with a home game against Florida International Friday before a neutral game against Indiana in the Jimmy V Classic. Of course, the big early-season game will come against Kentucky on Dec. 27.

No matter how important a game looks on paper, though, each squad will have to come prepared for every matchup to ensure a place in the NCAA tournament with the best seed possible.

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