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Bucs avoid blowout, stick with Louisville till end

By Joe Avento
Press Sports Writer
javento@johnsoncitypress.com

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The record book says it was another loss, yet the East Tennessee State basketball team found a measure of redemption Saturday at Louisville.

The Bucs stayed closed enough to 20th-ranked Louisville to keep the Cardinals’ attention until the end of a 69-56 defeat at Freedom Hall in a regionally televised game.

“Never happy with a loss, but I’m proud of our effort,” ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. “I’m proud of the guys.”

The Bucs (1-3) withstood a 17-0 Louisville run in the first half by hammering a much bigger Louisville team on the glass in the second half. Throw in a spectular shooting performance by Justin Tubbs in the final seven minutes and the feared blowout never materialized.

Tubbs made four consecutive 3-pointers, each one more difficult than the previous. That alowed ETSU to cut a deficit that was as high as 21 points to 11 with 2:44 remaining.

“I hit one and I kind of went from there,” said Tubbs, who finished with a career-high 18 points, making 5 of 9 shots from 3-point range, “After I made that first one, my confidence shot through the roof.”

Tubbs’ only two-point basket came on a dunk from an offensive rebound, something of which the Bucs did plenty.

After being out-reounded 24-14 in the first half, ETSU wound up even on the boards by the end. Each team finished with 44 rebounds, and the Bucs had 19 on the offensive end.

“We’re a pretty good offensive rebounding team,” Bartow said. “We’re not a great shooting team, so there are a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounds.”

The Bucs shot 33 percent from the field and had 20 turnovers. Louisville, which beat Arkansas by 30 in its opener, didn’t shoot much better. The Cardinals made 36 percent of their shots and were 6 of 30 from 3-point range.

“We struggled shooting the basketbal tonight because we took challenged shots,” Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. “We paid for it by being sluggish. The energy level isn’t as high when you don’t have success on offense.”

Louisville grabbed its biggest lead at 46-25 with 15:14 left. Then, Bartow inserted three freshmen into the lineup. Sheldon Cooley, Lukas Poderis and Bruce Grimm didn’t back down as ETSU went on a 14-4 run with the youngsters playing key roles.

Cooley eventually took over the point and made a remarkable wrap-around pass to Poderis for a layup. He finished with five assists.

“I thought he did a fabulous job,” Bartow said of Cooley. “Those two (Cooley and Poderis) got a lot of valuable minutes.”

The spirited effort came two days after a lackluster performance against Morgan State, where a disconcerted offense led to a 72-61 defeat.

“This is a great venue, one of the best in college basketball,” Bartow said. “A TV game against Louisvile. If our guys couldn’t get up for this, they need to go play badminton.”

In the early going, the Bucs had no answer for Samardo Samuels, Louisville’s 6-foot-10, 260-pound Jamaican center. Samuels had six points and five rebounds in the first seven minutes before beging called for his second foul and sitting on the bench the rest of the first half. Sensing the physical mismatch, the Cards tried to get him a touch on every possession while he was being guarded by ETSU’s Isiah Brown, 50 poiunds lighter than Samuels.

Samuels finihed with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three of Louisville’s nine blocked shots, but Pitino wasn’t happy with his big man’s production.

“He should have had 17 or 18 rebounds tonight,” Pitino said. “I’m really not pleased with anybody rebounding the basketball.”

The Bucs managed to do something they didn’t do against Morgan State. They grabbed the lead at 10-7 on Micah Williams’ 3-pointer five minutes into the game.

Seeing themselves behind on the scoreboard must have awoken the Cardinals as they went on a 17-0 tear to assume control. They took the lead for good, appropriately enough, on a dunk by Samuels.

Williams finished with 12 points for ETSU, going 5 for 15 from the field. Edgar Sosa led Louisville with 16 points.

“We came into the game wanting to compete and play hard,” ETSU’s Tomy Hubbard said. “And that’s what we did. Louisville’s a great team. We took a step forward.”

Hubbard finished a point and rebound shy of his third consecutive double-double.

This was the first of games on three consecutive days for the Cardinals. They play host to Morgan State today and Appalachian State on Monday. The games are part of the Hall of Fame Shootout.

The Bucs return to action Wednesday night with a home game against the College of Charleston. Then it’s off to Arkansas on Friday.