Smith, Cardinals soar past fluttering Ducks in 77-69 win

Saturday, March 30, 2013
Louisville senior Gorgui Dieng elevates to haul in a rebound over Oregon's Arsalan Kazemi in the first half on Friday. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

INDIANAPOLIS -- Oregon coach Dana Altman is used to being the underdog. Prior to arriving in Eugene three seasons ago, he was the coach of Creighton teams that made the NCAA tournament seven times.

This trip to the Sweet 16 was his first, however, and the inexperience showed as his No. 12 Ducks lost to Louisville on Friday 77-69.

The Cardinals (32-5), the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed, took advantage of a nearly-home crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium and controlled the game throughout.

Louisville never trailed and Oregon (28-9) seldom closed the gap to much less than the eight-point final deficit.

Junior Russ Smith was dominant for Louisville, getting into the paint at will and playing tireless full court defense. He finished with 31 points on 9-for-16 shooting, matching a career-high and setting a stadium record.

"When I'm on the court, I just see little spaces and I try to get to that spot before the defender does," Smith said. "A lot of times it's not the scorer, it's the person setting the guy up for it. And I'm getting great outlet passes, great curl passes, great passes fading off screens."

The Ducks were a step slower most of the night, which is to be expected for a 12-seed against a one, but Oregon did enough little things right to stay respectable.

Still, each time they had a chance to put together a run, the crowd lifted Louisville, and usually Smith.

"Without Russ Smith, we couldn't win," Pitino said. "I thought he was a runaway player of the year. Runaway. And that's no knock on the other guys (around the country), because they're great, too."

Smith didn't do it alone. After Louisville got a stop on defense with 10:57 left in the second half, point guard Peyton Siva walked the ball up the court and dipped around a defender.

The Cardinals led 56-46 at that point, but it set the crowd off. Louisville went on a 10-2 run immediately after, begun by a Siva three-pointer, his first field goal of the game.

Oregon never got closer than six the rest of the way.

"(We) dug ourself a pretty big hole and weren't able to come back," Altman said. "I really enjoyed working with this group. (It's) one of the more enjoyable years I've had working with a group of young men, and (I'm) just disappointed that we didn't play a little bit better."

Kevin Ware (11) and Gorgui Dieng (10) reached double-figure scoring for the Cardinals. Dieng also had nine rebounds and four blocks. Ware's was a career-high.

Senior E.J. Singler had 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting to lead Oregon. Arsalan Kazemi had 11 points and 12 rebounds.

"We're just doing a tremendous job trying to win it," Smith said. "We have great bigs and great forwards. ... It's a team effort."

Louisville returns to the Elite Eight for the second straight year and the fourth time since 2008.

They'll face Duke on Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

"We've been a great defensive -- not a good one, a great one -- all season," Pitino said. "Our offense has really grown in the last few weeks. We're shooting an amazing percentage, which we didn't do all season.

"That's why we're in the Elite Eight."

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