By JOSH ABNER
Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The emotion of raising a national championship banner combined with replacing two key players from the team that won the title had No. 3 Louisville in a close game for 33 minutes against the College of Charleston on Saturday.
Then came the boom.
The Cardinals outscored Charleston 22-3 over the final 6:41 to pull away to a 70-48 victory in the first game of its national championship defense.
“Our quality, that ‘boom’ quality that we had last year came out again in the second half because we played like starving dogs,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski saw it when Louisville shook off the grief of losing teammate Kevin Ware to a broken leg and ripped off a 13-2 second-half run that pushed the Cardinals to the Final Four.
“I thought we had a chance there, and then, boom,” Krzyzewski said after the Midwest Regional final. “That’s what they do to teams.”
Louisville pulled off similar comebacks against Wichita State and Michigan to earn the school’s third national title in April. They unveiled the championship banner for those efforts before Saturday’s game but were shaky at the start following the ceremony that Pitino wrapped up.
“We are very much like the Green Bay Packers. We are owned by our fans,” he said, choked up in the moment.
Preseason All-America Russ Smith led Louisville with 21 points and five assists. He said while the pregame pageantry was “special” it “threw everything out of rhythm.”
“We just had to kind of kick the rust off,” Smith said. “I’m kind of happy we got back into playing the way we know how to play.”
That style — pressure basketball on defense and attacking the rim on offense — was on display as Louisville’s spurt put the Cougars away late.
“It kind of just felt like last year when we kind of just boomed people,” said Stephan Van Treese, a fifth-year senior. “We just kept it going. It was awesome; the crowd really got into it.”
Van Treese had six points and seven rebounds, all in the second half, after picking up two fouls in the first 3:10. Freshman Mangok Mathiang added seven points and 10 rebounds in his collegiate debut.
They were the players trying to replace Gorgui Dieng, now with the Minnesota Timberwolves, at center.
“That was great play and what we need from the 5 spot,” Pitino said. “We need hungry hustle and they gave it to us.”
Smith’s new backcourtmate Chris Jones, last season’s national junior college player of the year, charged with replacing four-year starter Peyton Siva, added 12 points and five assists.
Charleston trailed 48-45 after freshman Canyon Barry hit a 17-footer with 6:55 to play. Then Smith asserted himself, hitting two free throws and driving to find forwards Montrezl Harrell and Wayne Blackshear for easy baskets that gave the Cardinals a 54-45 lead with 5:05 left. Charleston scored again with 2:42 remaining, making it 61-47 and ending a 13-0 Louisville run.
“I’m just disappointed it didn’t go to the wire,” Charleston coach Doug Wojcik said. “I really thought we were in it. We ran in at halftime down two . that’s my disappointment.”
Barry led Charleston with 10 points while Adjehi Baru added eight points and nine rebounds.
Ware, whose poise last season after his gruesome compound leg fracture turned him into Louisville’s rallying point and the NCAA tournament’s most memorable figure, did not play. He saw his first game action since the injury on Wednesday, 220 days after injuring his leg against Duke. He played 10 second-half minutes in an exhibition win against Pikeville, draining his first shot, a 3-pointer.
Louisville was also without Luke Hancock, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player who scored 22 points and hit all five of his 3-pointers in the title game. He is out with an Achilles tendon injury. Forward Chane Behanan returned to practice on Friday for the first time in nearly a month but remains suspended.
Opening game jitters were evident early as the Cardinals hit just 4 of their first 17 shots before Harrell skied to slam down an alley-oop pass from Jones, giving Louisville a 15-13 lead midway through the first half. The Cardinals were outshot and outrebounded in the first half but led 29-27 at the break after Smith hit a floating jumper with 45 seconds left.
Tied at 29 with 19:13 left, Barry missed two free throws — shot underhanded like his Hall of Fame father Rick — that would have put the Cougars ahead before a 9-0 Louisville run made it 38-29 with 15:30 to play.
Charleston kept it close — in contrast to last season’s 80-38 scalding — until Louisville unleashed its spurt.
Louisville shot just 38 percent from the field (26 of 68). Blackshear, who led the Cardinals with 18 points in last season’s matchup, missed his first 11 shots before hitting a jumper from the right baseline with 9:04 left. He finished with 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting and six rebounds.
No. 11 OHIO ST. 89
MORGAN ST. 50
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Shannon Scott scored a career-high 16 points and LaQuinton Ross, also starting for the first time as a junior, had 14 points and a personal-best 11 rebounds for Ohio State.
Lenzelle Smith Jr. led the way with 18 points and spurred a first-half spurt for the Buckeyes, who improved to 93-18 in home openers and 89-22 in season debuts.
Justin Black had 13 points, Ian Chiles 12 and Anthony Hubbard 11 for Morgan State, which was meeting the Buckeyes for the first time.
Sam Thompson added 14 points and freshman Marc Loving had 10 for Ohio State. Scott had seven assists to go with his 16 points, while Ross registered his first career double-double.
No. 16 WICHITA
STATE 93
EMPORIA ST. 50
WICHITA, Kan. — Cleanthony Early scored 21 points and Ron Baker added 17 to lead Wichita State in its first game since its Final Four appearance.
The Shockers cruised in their season opener against Emporia State, an NCAA Division II team playing for the second consecutive day, by shooting 51.7 percent and attempting 22 more free throws than the Hornets.
Baker was 7 of 9 from the field, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range, while adding six assists. Fred VanVleet had 12 points and six assists for Wichita State.
The Shockers were 25 of 33 from the free throw line while Emporia State was 8 of 11.
Terrence Moore, playing in his hometown, led Emporia State with 15 points while Kaleb Wright added 12.
The Hornets, coming off an 81-76 victory at Missouri-Kansas City on Friday, kept it close during the first 10 minutes.
