No. 21 Louisville can’t afford slip-up against Georgia Tech

No. 21 Louisville took just its second loss to an unranked team all season on Tuesday. It came at a costly time as the Cardinals are vying for position across a crowded top half of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Before finishing the season with three games against teams that are above them in the ACC standings, the Cardinals have a chance to lock in and bounce back when they host lowly Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Louisville (19-7, 8-5 ACC) had been on a hot streak, winning seven of eight before falling 95-85 to SMU on Tuesday in Dallas. The Cardinals had been able to subdue the second-highest scoring team in the ACC on Jan. 31 when they beat the visiting Mustangs 88-74.

This time SMU shot the lights out from the field, connecting on 58.5% while Louisville made just 44.8%. The Cardinals also committed a season-high 17 turnovers, including 12 in the second half.

The 95 points SMU scored were the most the Cardinals have allowed in two seasons under coach Pat Kelsey.

"We had 17 turnovers, which is uncharacteristic of our team," Kelsey said. "But you can't defend like that, turn the ball over like that, that's a recipe for losing a conference game on the road."

Louisville has the highest-scoring offense in the ACC at 86.8 points per game, led by Mikel Brown Jr.'s 18.6 points per contest. Brown is at 34.3 ppg over his past three games.

Brown is one of five double-digit scorers for the Cardinals, a group that includes Ryan Conwell (18.4 ppg) and sharpshooter J'Vonne Hadley (10.9 ppg, 43.6% from 3-point range).

The Cardinals are 14th in the NCAA's NET rankings. With more Quad 1 win opportunities coming up, Louisville will have to regain its footing after the slip-up against SMU.

Luckily for the Cardinals, Georgia Tech (11-16, 2-12) has been one of the punching bags for the conference. The Yellow Jackets have lost eight straight games, and the margin was 14 or more points in six of those contests.

The latest setback for Georgia Tech was a 94-68 home loss to No. 14 Virginia on Wednesday. It didn't take long for the game to get out of reach as the Yellow Jackets found themselves down 42-9 with 6:36 left in the first half.

"After a while, it's not even about winning and losing ... I'm looking to see what we're made of," coach Damon Stoudamire said postgame. "I can't put the jersey on and run up and down no more. So, sometimes I just want to see a little bit more fight. That's all. And that for me is, at times, the disappointing thing."

It was the eighth time this season that Georgia Tech allowed its opponent to shoot at least 50% from the field.

If the Yellow Jackets want to pull off the upset, they likely will have to turn to leading scorers Kowacie Reeves Jr. and Baye Ndongo. Reeves is shooting 45.5% from the field while averaging 15.2 points, and Ndongo averages 12.5 points and leads the team in rebounding with 8.3 per game.

The Cardinals lost to Georgia Tech last season 77-70, but Louisville had won 14 of the previous 16 matchups.