Cards hold on for dear life, defeat Orange 73-69

Ever wonder what would happen if Preston Knowles and Kyle Kuric both caught extreme fire on the same day? We sure as hell found out this afternoon.

Combine lights-out shooting performances from PK (22 points, seven 3-pointers) and Kyle (23 points, five 3s) with Terrence Jennings continuing to put rebounds and toughness ahead of points, 6 assists and 3 steals from Peyton Siva, two of our Omega-runs to end the first half and begin the second, and maybe the best half-court ball movement of the season, and what do you get?

Apparently you get Louisville hanging on by the thinnest of threads for victory over a spiraling 13th ranked Syracuse team that nearly dealt us a devastating blow by coming back from twenty down to reverse-Marquette us in our own house.

Syracuse is always a tough team, so I'll take the victory and won't complain. (Plus, what a game it was). And I'll also look forward to seeing on replay those two amazing runs. Knowles hitting that long three pointer as time expired. Kuric knocking down 3s and 2s in quick succession. Siva steals, Knowles steals. TJ getting mean and ripping rebounds away from the Orange. Yes.

When we get hot like that, I'm confident there's not a team in the country that can answer. Those Pitino runs are frenetic and sensational and a whole lot of fun to watch. It's what our head coach does better than any other in the country.

But this is Louisville, after all, and the minute we take the foot off the accelerator a team will come back and beat us. It almost happened today. Almost.

Stats here.

Kudos to Peyton Siva for keeping his head, hitting critical free throws down the stretch to finally stave off Jim Boeheim's starving Orangemen. And congrats Cardinals. This was a gigantic victory. What a roller coaster ride.