If it weren’t for some late-game heroics by forward Tre White, the Louisville Cardinals would have suffered a home loss to a sub-250 ranked team at KenPom in New Mexico State, and you can bet the calls for coach Kenny Payne’s job would have reached a fever pitch.
However, White helped lead the Cardinals on an 8-0 run in the closing minute of regulation, including drilling a wide-open three-pointer to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to go, which forced overtime where Louisville was able to outscore the Aggies and take home a 90-84 win.
The Cardinals are now 3-3 on the season, with a home loss to Chattanooga and a pair of neutral site losses to No. 19 Texas (by just one point) and Indiana in the Empire Classic.
Louisville fans no doubt hoped the strong performances over Feast Week, even though they were both losses, would carry over to this buy-in game against the Aggies – but instead the Cardinals shot only 44.6% from the field and 20% (4-20) from beyond the arc, only managing to find any offense at the free throw line – where they ended up a whopping 49(!) times and converted 36.
New Mexico State played the final 20 seconds of overtime with only four players after six different Aggies fouled out of the contest, and their own inability to convert from deep (27.8%) or the charity stripe (52.9%) ultimately prevented them from picking up a very nice road win in Jason Hooten’s first season at the helm for the rebuilding Aggies – who have an entirely new team after last year’s season was suspended due to serious hazing allegations.
White’s 22 points were second on the team behind a monster performance from Skyy Clark, who had 29 total points on 6-8 shooting thanks to a 15-16 performance at the stripe.
Louisville will host Bellarmine (2-4) on Wednesday, ranked No. 229 at KenPom, before going on the road to take on Virginia Tech on December 3 in the first conference game of the year for Payne’s squad.