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 Terry Rozier scored 26 points and No. 10 Louisville made 30 of 46
shots from the field to get back on track with an 80-68 victory over
Pittsburgh on Sunday.
Louisville (15-4, 4-3 ACC) had lost two of its previous three games.
However, the Cardinals were in sync against Pitt as they posted the
highest opponents shooting percentage at the Petersen Events Center
since it opened at the start of the 2002-03 season.
"We usually win with defense, but tonight we won with our offense,"
Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "Not that the defense was bad but
our offense was really special. When you have special offensive
games, it's always the result of great passing and we worked the
ball well.
"It was a good win. We obviously needed to play well to get our
confidence back after that Duke loss."
Louisville shot just 29.5 percent in losing 63-52 at Duke on Jan.
17, then had to wait eight days to play again. The Cardinals showed
they were ready to make amends right from the start.
 "We had to get back to the basics, get back to the fundamentals of
the game -- boxing out, make sure we share the ball with each
other," Louisville junior forward Montrezl Harrell said. "We had to
move on, get back to the drawing board."
Rozier scored 18 points in the first half when Louisville shot a
blazing 70.8 percent (17 of 24) in building a 40-30 halftime lead.
The sophomore guard notched his fifth game with at least 20 points
this season.
"We played zone and he got open within the zone," Pitt coach Jamie
Dixon said. "We played man and he made some tough shots, especially
on fallaways. He's a very good player and he just got going. Nothing
we did seemed to be effective against him."
Harrell scored 18 points to push his career total to 1,015 and
become the 66th player in Louisville history to reach 1,000 points.
The consensus preseason All-American had averaged just nine points
over the previous four games and was so disappointed with his
performance that he resigned his positon as a team co-captain
earlier in the week.
"He needs to attack the rim to be truly effective," Pitino said. "He
quit trying to play like Kevin Durant tonight and played more like
Montrezl Harrell."
Senior guard Chris Jones added 17 points and nine assists for
Louisville, and sophomore forward Mangok Mathiang finished with 10
points.
Sophomore forward Jamel Artis scored 18 points to lead Pitt (13-7,
3-4), which lost for just the third time in 13 games against top-10
teams at the Petersen Events Center.
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Junior guard James Robinson had 16 points and six assists for the
Panthers while sophomore forward Michael Young added 14 points and
nine rebounds before fouling out and sophomore swingman Chris Jones
scored 12 points.
Pitt scored the first five points of the second half, closing the
gap to 40-35 on a free throw by Robinson. However, Louisville
answered by outscoring the Panthers 22-9 over the next 10 1/2
minutes to take a commanding 62-44 lead on a layup by Harrell with
6:59 left.
Louisville wound up needing the cushion, though, as Pitt closed to
68-59 with 3:09 remaining before the Cardinals again pulled away.
After Young's jumper put Pitt ahead 10-8, Louisville answered with a
10-1 burst to move in front for good at 18-11 with 11:44 remaining
in the first half. Rozier sparked the run with seven points.
"He saw opens spots, he attacked it," Harrell said of Rozier. "They
gave him open driving lanes and he made them pay for it."
NOTES: Senior F Wayne Blackshear is now Louisville's lone captain
after junior F Montrezl Harrell gave up his co-captaincy earlier in
the week. Blackshear scored six points before fouling out with 4:15
remaining. ... Pitt freshman G Cameron Johnson missed his 12th
straight game and is expected to undergo season-ending shoulder
surgery later in the week. He is averaging 4.5 points a game. ...
Louisville won despite being outrebounded 34-28 and committing 15
turnovers to Pitt's 12. ... Louisville plays at Boston College on
Wednesday night. ... Pitt, which began a stretch of playing at home
in four of five games, visits Virginia Tech on Tuesday night.
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