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The No. 4 Louisville Cardinals host the Virginia Cavaliers tonight in an ACC season matchup. Here is what’s in store for both teams!
Game info
No. 4 Louisville Cardinals (15-1, 3-1) vs. Virginia Cavaliers (7-10, 1-3)
When: Thursday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. ET
Where: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, KY | TICKETS
How to watch: ACC Network Extra
What Louisville and Virginia hope to accomplish tonight
The Cardinals will try to bounce back from an 82-68 loss to No. 1 Notre Dame a week ago. In the nationally-televised matchup, Louisville actually kept this game closer than the final score indicated. Senior star Asia Durr scored 29 points and got the Cardinals to a 68-66 deficit with just under two minutes left in regulation before the Irish went on a 14-2 run to close the game out.
Louisville followed the loss with a solid 61-44 win over the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets om Sunday, but it was not enough to keep the Cardinals from slipping a couple spots in the AP poll. A win over Virginia, however, will keep the Cardinals on track for the ACC regular season championship if Notre Dame loses a conference game sometime before the tournament starts in March. Louisville and Notre Dame will not play again for the rest of the conference season.
The Virginia Cavaliers split their two games last week, defeating intrastate rival Virginia Tech at home a week ago, 62-58, and dropping one to No. 8 NC State on Sunday, 66-38. Junior guard/forward Jocelyn Willoughby and junior guard Dominique Toussaint are the Cavaliers’ leading contributors this season. Both have put up big numbers, but each is an inefficient scorer, with neither shooting over 40 percent from the field and Virginia, as a team, shooting just 35.9 percent from the field overall. If both Willoughby and Toussaint can score many points and shoot efficiently, Virginia may have a chance to upset one of the top teams in the nation.