CHARLOTTE — Ryan Conwell scored five of his 16 points in the final 77 seconds as No. 24 Louisville overcame SMU for a 62-58 victory in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament’s second round Wednesday afternoon.
The Cardinals, playing without freshman standout Mikel Brown Jr., received lifts from Adrian Wooley’s 14 points and Isaac McKneely’s 10 points. SMU didn’t score in the final 2:43.
Sixth-seeded Louisville (23-9) meets third-seeded Miami (24-7) in Thursday’s quarterfinals in a rematch from Saturday’s regular-season finale won by the visiting Cardinals.
Jaron Pierre Jr.’s 17 points led No. 11 seed SMU (20-13), while Jaden Toombs had 13 points and nine rebounds and Corey Washington added 10 points. Scoring leader Boopie Miller (19.5 ppg) was held to eight points on 4-of-17 shooting, missing all eight of his 3-point attempts, while the Mustangs were 9-for-27 overall from 3-point range (33.3%).
SMU was hurt by 14 turnovers — which led to 16 Louisville points — a day after eliminating Syracuse in the first round. The Mustangs will await their NCAA Tournament fate Sunday. They appear firmly on the bubble having missed the chance to boost their resume with another ranked win.
Louisville prevailed despite shooting 39.6% from the field. At least in part, this was because the Cardinals were 14-for-20 on free throws and SMU made 1 of 3 at the foul line.
Conwell got it together at the right time, making his final three field-goal attempts to finish 6-for-15 from the field.
Neither team led by more than six points, with the score at 26-26 at halftime. SMU was up 48-43 with eight minutes left.
The score was deadlocked at 50-all and 56-all before Pierre’s go-ahead basket for SMU with 2:43 left.
Louisville’s Vangelis Zougris went 1-for-2 at the foul line before Conwell’s 3-pointer put the Cardinals ahead with 1:17 to play, making him 2-for-9 for the game on 3-pointers. After Miller missed a 3-pointer, Conwell scored a layup on the ensuing Louisville possession to push the lead to four points.
Miller was off the mark from long range again on the next possession, one of six consecutive field goals SMU missed to end the game.
Pierre accounted for over half of SMU’s made 3-pointers, finishing 5-for-9 from outside the arc.
Louisville needs two more victories to return to the ACC tournament championship game for the second year in a row.
–by Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
