Louisville outlasted Wichita State in their Final Four matchup and has now advanced to the 2013 NCAA Tournament championship game. The Cardinals squeaked by the Shockers 72-68 finally ending their Cinderella run.
The Cardinals had to overcome the fact that one of their team leaders would not only not be suiting up for this game, but that he won’t be playing for them in the championship game either.
At this point, there are few people watching the NCAA Tournament who haven’t heard about Kevin Ware and his horrific bone break. Despite suffering an injury that actually had opposing players in tears, Ware has managed to bounce back and be a rallying point for the team. He even traveled to the final four with the squad to cheer them on from the bench.
Louisville looked like they were missing Ware quite a bit at certain points in the game. The #1 seed actually trailed the ninth seeded Shockers by as many as 12 at one point in the game.
Still, the Cardinals simply couldn’t be put down and they wouldn’t quite trying to chip away at whatever deficit they found themselves in. “I just kept telling the guys … `We’re going to make a run. It’s about defense,” the team’s head coach Rick Pitino said .
For the Shockers, Cleanthony Early has been the team leader since the first game of the tournament and he led the team tonight with 24 points. Early scored five of the Shockers’ first eight points.
The Shockers started the game with an 8-0 lead and it appeared that they might actually be headed to yet another upset win. While the Cardinals held a one run lead at the half, they trailed for most of the second half.
With 4:47 in the game the Cardinals finally took the lead back and managed to hold on for the victory.
Louisville will next take on the winner of the Syracuse-Michigan game in the other half of the Final Four.
