Louisville vs. Virginia: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

A great defensive battle ended with the Virginia Cavaliers securing a 52-47 win over the Louisville Cardinals.

The Cavaliers held the Cardinals to just 13 points on 4-of-21 shooting in the first half. Although the second half went a bit better for the road team, there was simply not enough offense, as only four different players scored in the loss.

Terry Rozier led all scorers with 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists, while Montrezl Harrell added 12 points and six rebounds.

As Mike Barber of the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted, Virginia is used to shutting teams down this way:

On the other end of the court, Virginia shot just 33.3 percent but utilized a balanced effort offensively, with four players scoring at least nine points. Malcolm Brogdon led the way with 15 despite going just 3-of-13 from the field.

Most of the damage was done without the team's leading scorer, Justin Anderson, who injured his left hand in the first half:

He finished with just two points, as the Cavaliers were forced to survive without him, which they did against one of the better teams in the nation.

Virginia improves to 9-1 in conference play with a one-game lead over Notre Dame, while the Cardinals fell to 7-3.

At first, this game seemed to be headed toward a much easier result for Virginia. The squad got out to an early lead thanks to a surprising effort from Mike Tobey, as detailed by Eamonn Brennan of ESPN.com:

Of course, it was the defense that really allowed the Cavaliers to pull away. Anyone who doubted this unit was given a reminder in the first half as Louisville couldn't buy a basket.

Rob Carlin of CSN provided a look at the early damage:

Amazingly, things got much worse for the Cardinals, as they weren't able to score for the final 10 minutes and 32 seconds of the first half. The pack-line defense made every look difficult as the home team was able to go into halftime up 24-13.

ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman had to emphasize the incredible effort:

Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde joked about Louisville's poor offensive performance:

Meanwhile, Seth Davis of CBS Sports liked what he saw from Virginia in all phases:

Rob Dauster of NBC Sports explained why the matchup worked so well in the Cavaliers' favor:

Louisville was finally able to get some points in the second half, but it still wasn't easy. Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal explained how Virginia was beating the Cardinals at their own game:

Despite all of this, the score remained close thanks to the Louisville defense and Virginia's willingness to play a slow game. Stephen Schramm of The Fayetteville Observer was foreshadowing in his analysis in the second half:

The Cardinals didn't let Virginia pull way as Wayne Blackshear got on the board and received some help from Harrell and Rozier. Eric Crawford of WDRB was proud of the turnaround from the first half:

Unfortunately, the run was still too little, too late, as the Cavaliers were able to hold on for an impressive five-point victory.

While the majority of college basketball fans are watching these games with the mindset of how each will impact March Madness, Virginia coach Tony Bennett has done his best to keep his team from looking ahead. He recently told reporters, via Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal:

"

This is about the moment. I think if you, again, start thinking ahead, 'Well, I wonder what my draft status is, or I wonder what seed we're going to be,' I just think that's a mistake. It doesn't work like that for me and it doesn't work like that for our guys.

We're midway through the ACC season. We've got one of the best defensive teams I've seen coming in here. Revel in that challenge.

"

Bennett's players clearly stepped up to the challenge, and they are now in the driver's seat in the ACC.

Things also finally get easier after three straight games against Top 15 opponents. Virginia goes on the road to face North Carolina State Wednesday before a stretch of three straight home games.

Louisville will return home for a matchup against Pittsburgh, winners of three in a row after beating Syracuse Saturday.

Although both teams should be favored in the majority of their games going forward, they still need to keep their focus every time out to avoid being upset.

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