Louisville Moves on in the Big East Tournament by Defeating Notre Dame in OT

Led by emotionally charged efforts on defense and from guards Preston Knowles and Peyton Siva, Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals came back from a 14-point deficit to win against Big East opponent Notre Dame. The Cardinals are now going to meet the University of Connecticut in the Big East Tournament Final.

For the first half, Notre Dame lit up the Cardinals with solid shooting and managed to get the Cardinals into foul trouble early and really knock them off their game. The Fighting Irish jumped up to a 14 point lead. Then, in the second half, Peyton Siva and Preston Knowles pumped up the Cardinals defense with good shots and even better rebounding.

It also helped that Ben Hansbrough, Notre Dame’s star guard and Big East Player of the Year, did not play well at all.

In the second half, Peyton Siva led a good charge for the Cardinals, but he fouled out with just less than four minutes left.

This did not dampen Louisville, as Knowles tied the game up with a free throw at the 2:31 mark, only to have an amazing, left-handed tip in at 1:49 to give his team the lead. Notre Dame’s Carleton Scott made a layup with 45 seconds left to tie the game and send the tournament’s semi-final to overtime at 72-72.

Earlier in the season, the Cardinals lost in overtime to Notre Dame on the road.

But that wasn’t the case today at Madison Square Garden. The Cardinal’s strong defense and free throw shooting that sealed the victory for the team.

Louisville (25-8) outplayed the experience 7-man rotation of Notre Dame (26-6), with strong playing from Knowles, Siva and forward/center Terrence Jennings, who combined for 51 points of the total 83 points. Notre Dame’s Scott Martin scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

The Cardinals play Jim Calhoun’s UConn Huskies, who had an overtime victory against Syracuse, in the Big East Tournament Final tomorrow. Louisville won both meetings against UConn in the regular season.