Louisville Cardinals edge past Vanderbilt Commodores 62-60: NCAA Basketball Recap
At the KFC Yum Center on Friday night, the clash between Vanderbilt Commodores and Louisville Cardinals panned out to be one of the best games in the NCAA Tournament 2011 so far.
In what was a humdinger, 40 minutes proved insufficient to decide a winner, and the game went into overtime. Vanderbilt started the overtime dominantly and shifted the momentum to their side by scoring 5 quick points, however Cardinals
came from behind to first ties the game at 60 with less than a minute remaining and then sealed the game with Peyton Silva’s driving layup.
Cardinals, after this win, have extended their unbeaten record to 7-0 whereas Commodores have dropped to 5-3.
Kyle Kuric, who had a quiet tournament so far, paced the winners with 15 points including 3 for 7 from outside the arc. He received massive support from Chane Behanan and Peyton, who scored the most crucial shot in the game. Both
players accumulated 14 points each and pulled down a combined of 17 rebounds (Chane 10, Silva 7)
Although Commodores lost in the end, the player of the game was from their side - John Jenkins.
Jenkins hammered 27 points including 5 for 11 from the three-point range and 4 for 4 from the charity stripe. Jeffery Taylor and Lance played the supporting role well, chipping with 11 points each. Unfortunately for them, the combined
performance of these players was overshadowed by Peyton’s brilliance.
The first half of the game was a three-point fest.
A total of eight treys were drilled in the half, with 5 fired from the Commodores. The game was in balance throughout and the scores got levelled on 4 instances. The scores were tied on 25 all with few seconds remaining, however
a foul by Cardinals allowed Lance to score from the charity stripe and close out the half at 26-25 in the favour of Commodores.
Commodores made a strong start to the second half, enhancing their first half 1 point lead to 7 points 41-34- with Jenkins and Taylor, the main scorers in that phase.
However Chane keyed the revival of Cardinals with a 13-6 surge in next few minutes to make it 47 all with only three minutes remaining in the game.
The scores were levelled again on 49 with a minute remaining when Gorgui Deng made a free throw to turn it in the favour of Cardinals.
Steve Tchiengang had a chance to win it for the Commodores in the regulation time, but after making one free throw, he drained the most crucial one to and the scores remained at 50 apiece.
In overtime, Cardinals managed to hold their nerves and fought gallantly to seal the win.
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