Louisville Basketball Video: Watch Cheerleader's Premature Celebration vs. Pitt

Louisville Basketball Video: Cheerleader Gives Panthers New Life

Louisville basketball video reveals another valid argument against cheerleaders. 

In overtime, the sixth-ranked Panthers trailed 16th ranked Louisivlle 60-57 with under 10 seconds to play.

Pitt guard Brad Wanamaker fired a pass down below the basket to forward Gilbert Brown, who missed the easy toss-in. The Cardinals (22-7, 11-5) took the rebound, went on a fast break, and Kyle Kuric seemingly put the game away with a monster dunk: the Cardinals were ahead 62-57 with less than one second remaining.  

But one of the Louisville (male) cheerleaders picked up the ball and heaved it into the air, leading to a technical foul against the home team.

"All good things have to come to an end, and the male cheerleader [at Louisville] comes to an end," a facetious Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "Hopefully he'll learn the rules."

That gave the Panthers (25-4, 13-3) two free throws—Ashton Gibson made both for Pitt—and the ball. Fortunately for the Cardinals, their fans, and that cheerleader who almost became a infamous campus legend, Pitt was unable to get off a three-point attempt with .07 remaining and Louisville hung on.

The Panthers trailed 31-22 at the half but roared back to tie the game. With 21 second remaining in regulation Wanamaker nailed a jumper to even the score at 56. And when Kuric's layup in the final second missed, overtime was needed.

But the Panthers were sloppy in the extra period, turning the ball over twice and failing to make a single field goal.

"This is a tough loss for us," Wanamaker said afterward. "Now we have to win out to win the Big East. We caught them out of sync a little bit in the second half but we just couldn't make some shots and didn't finish strong in overtime.