On Saturday, January 11th, the Pitt Panthers fell to the Louisville Cardinals at the Petersen Events Center in a “three-pointer-filled affair.” Both the Panthers and the Cardinals have gotten off to hot starts. Louisville, who only won a total of 12 games over the previous two seasons combined, picked up their 12th win of the 2024-25 campaign, led by senior guard and College of Charleston transfer Reyne Smith with 25 points.

Pitt won the tipoff, but neither team scored for over two minutes. Louisville finally broke the ice, highlighted by a Reyne Smith 3, giving the Cardinals a 5-0 lead. Pitt struck back and quickly went on a 15-2 run, giving them a 15-7 lead with 13:33 remaining in the first half. Louisville responded with a long 14-0 run of their own, holding Pitt scoreless over the next 6 minutes to take a 24-20 lead.

The teams closed out the first half with neither team taking a lead of more than 5 points, ending a first half that Pitt head coach Jeff Capel wishes he could have back. Jeff Capel's frustrations came from his team's first-half defensive rebounding. Louisville outrebounded Pitt 10-2 on offensive rebounds and outscored Pitt in second-chance points 14-3. After the game, Capel expressed his frustrations: “We scored enough to win, but we didn’t rebound the basketball, and that's the reason we lost….We have to defend better, and we have to rebound the basketball…. We have to finish our defense with rebounding.”

After the game, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey confirmed that his team has been great with offensive rebounding all year: “The key to be a good offensive rebounding team is, you know, you're nasty. Be nasty. Go get the stinkin’ ball.”

Despite being dominated on the glass in the first half, Louisville’s free-throw struggles gave Pitt life. The team shot just 3-8 from the charity stripe, and these struggles allowed Pitt to go into the half down just 1 point, at 35-34.

Throughout the season, Pitt has gone into the half from behind and came back to win 4 times this year, giving Pitt fans a glimmer of optimism. Pitt has comeback wins against LSU, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and California. Pitt has scored 551 points in the first half this season and a whopping 659 in the second half, showing a trend of slow starts, and strong finishes coming into this game. Unfortunately for Pitt, the same story could be said for the Cardinals, with 576 points in the first half and 648 points in the second.

As the second half began, Jeff Capel’s squad felt some déjà vu from the first half. Yet again, they did not score until the 17:38 mark, which was ended by Jaland Lowe's free throws. The team kept exchanging the lead, with both teams shooting threes. Louisville made 13 threes, 7 of which were by Reyne Smith, and 9 of them in the second half. Smith hit 4 threes in the second half. Pitt made 10 threes, 4 of which were made by senior guard Ish Leggett.

Louisville took multiple 5-point leads late into the second half, however Pitt always seemed to claw back. Graduate Guard and Houston transfer Damian Dunn hit his second straight three to bring Pitt back within 2, but senior guard and Wisconsin transfer Chucky Hepburn answered with a defeating stepback three, silencing the Oakland Zoo, Pitt’s student section.

With 2:44 remaining in the game and Pitt again down 5, Jaland Lowe, the Panthers’ leading scorer with 24, made 3 free throws, followed by a corner three from High Point transfer Zack Austin. Austin sent the Zoo into a frenzy and gave the Panthers the lead and momentum. Reyne Smith, who was seemingly automatic in the second half, shot a deep three, followed by a midrange 2 and another three, giving himself 8 straight for Louisville and the lead with just 1:20 remaining.

Down by 5, Ish Leggett gave Pitt hope with another three, but when 5th-year guard and Colorado transfer J’Vonne Hadley got his own offensive rebound off a missed three. Pitt made a crucial mistake, intentionally fouling down 2. Jeff Capel made it known post-game: “I did not tell them to foul.” Had Pitt not fouled, they would have had an opportunity to get the ball back with more time. Chucky Hepburn iced the game with a layup, giving Louisville their 6th straight win, 82-78. Pitt suffered their second straight loss following their 29-point loss at Duke.

Hepburn’s performance continued his stat-sheet-stuffing campaign. He finished the game with 15 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals. He is 39th in the nation for assists per game and 10th in steals per game.

There is controversy in this day and age about the impact of the transfer portal and NIL, however, Louisville has greatly benefited from it. Their entire starting lineup was transfer students. The Cardinals starting 5 consisted of Chucky Hepburn (Wisconsin), Terrence Edwards (JMU), J’Vonne Hadley (CU), Reyne Smith, and James Scott (College of Charleston). These impact transfers have turned Louisville’s basketball program around, as they are coming off an 8-24 season (3-17 ACC) and a 4-28 (2-18 ACC) 2022 campaign.

After the game, Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey was asked how his team, which is full of transfers, meshes so well together and has such good chemistry. “Making sure that you find, and recruit, and sign players that are about the right things and about winning. That are “We, not me”. That are about what we call the power of the unit. People hear me talk about this all the time, but it’s just the caliber of human beings that we recruit, you know, just from day one, they meshed together.”

Pitt is now 12-4 (3-2 ACC). They play Florida State on January 15th in Tallahassee.