By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE –T he University of Louisville basketball team is still alive in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship race, and for that credit David Levitch with a big assist.
Who’s David Levitch, you say? You remember him, don’t you? The former walk-on. Scored three points against Syracuse. A career high of nine points against, ahem, Grand Canyon. The guy who stayed glued to his seat on the sideline in Saturday’s win over Duke. Yes, that David Levitch.
The 6-3 junior from Goshen, Ky., by way of North Oldham High School came off the bench to score eight clutch points and get an important steal as No. 11 UofL (22-6, 11-4 ACC) rallied to defeat host Pittsburgh (19-8, 8-7) 67-60 Wednesday night in the Peterson Events Center.
Levitch first made his presence felt with a theft and layup shortly after making his first appearance of the evening late in the first half. But his biggest contributions came as the Cardinals were erasing a 48-40 deficit midway through the second period.
He drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing to cap an 8-0 run and tie the score at 48-48 with 6:50 left. Then he hit another trey from the left corner to give UofL the lead for good at 61-58 with 2:34 remaining.
“Levitch gave us an incredible lift; the passing was beautiful. He got the ball moving,” UofL coach Rick Pitino said. “It’s easy to make jump shots and score points (in a rout), but when the game’s on the line, it’s not easy. That’s what’s so impressive about Levitch. He has no fear of any situation. He’s got the biggest (guts) of all time. It doesn’t even faze him that this was a big game. He does this every time I put him in.”
Which isn’t often, of course. It was a rare opportunity for Levitch — who was awarded a scholarship this season — to make an impact on a game that was still up for grabs. He is normally on the court only when UofL has victory in hand, having played a total of just 23 minutes in six ACC contests. His most minutes in league play were nine, vs. Florida State, and his season high was 15 in a blowout of Kennesaw State.
Against Pitt, however, he logged a career-high 16 minutes, finishing with eight points and hitting 3-of-4 shots.
“When Coach calls my name, I just need to be patient,” Levitch said in his first — and maybe last — postgame press conference duty. “I’m just glad I could help my team out. People found me.”
Levitch was part of a weird lineup near the end of the first half that was necessitated in part by injuries that left the Cards shorthanded in the front line. Mangok Mathiang (broken foot) and Anas Mahmoud (ankle sprain) were already out for the season, and Ray Spalding was sidelined with a groin injury that Pitino said he suffered “horsing around” with teammates.
Levitch found himself on the court with two other reserves — Jay Henderson (also a walk-on) and Matz Stockman — along with regulars Damion Lee and Quentin Snider.
“That lineup with Jay Henderson at the four spot,” Pitino said, laughing. “I’m coaching 41 years and I don’t think I’ve ever been as poud of a basketball team as I am of this one. We have three frontcourt players out. We’re playing two walk-ons for four or five minutes in the first half, and they not only didn’t lose anything, but they got the lead.”
“That was an odd lineup, but we had to stick together,” Levitch said.
Other than Levitch, the rest of Louisville’s cast was more predictable as the Cards won their third straight and beat Pitt for the eighth time in a row.
Sophomore point guard Quentin Snider shook off back-to-back poor performances (3-of-13, 8 points, 6 assists) to lead the Cards with 14 points, a game-high seven assists and two steals. He hit 6-of-9 shots.
Freshman Deng Adel hit 5-of-7 shots while getting 12 points and seven rebounds in 29 minutes — 20 more minutes than his average playing time. Damion Lee added 13 points and Chinanu Onuaku contributed 10 points, five rebounds and a career-best six assists.
“We put a lot into this. We were ready. It’s a troubling loss,” said Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, whose team was thumped by UofL 59-41 last month. “We’ve never been in a situation where we had an eight-point lead and let it slip away. They have some good interior size, their post players are good, but we had some good looks that we didn’t knock down.”
After the Cards missed eight shots in a row and fell behind 48-40, they got incredibly hot and didn’t miss again. They hit their last nine shots, including five 3-pointers — by Levitch, Snider and Lee. They made 12 of 23 shots in the second half (52.2 percent) and wound up 27-of-53 (51 percent) against the ACC’s second-worst defense.
It was their second straight 50 percent shooting, and their 43.8 percentage (7-16) from 3-point range was their second-best in the last 12 games.
After Levitch’s trey snapped the 58-58 deadlock, Onuaku’s dunk off a nifty pass from Snider, and Lee’s two free throws gave UofL some breathing room, making it 65-58 with 38 seconds left.
“I feel like a proud father,” Pitino said. “I can’t be any prouder of a basketball team, and I told them that. We’ve come back all year. Now, we haven’t won them all, but we’ve come back and that speaks volumes about what they’re all about as people.”
UofL’s win set up a showdown with 12/11 Miami (22-5, 11-4) Saturday in Coral Gables, Fla. (2 p.m. tipoff). The teams are tied for second in the ACC, a game behind North Carolina (12-3), but one of them could wind up the day tied for first if the Tar Heels lose at Virginia Saturday night.
Miami is 8-0 in ACC home games, including wins over Virginia, Duke and Notre Dame.
The Cards didn’t return to Louisville from Pittsburgh, heading straight for Miami after the game.
FANS TAUNT CARDS–Fans at road games have more or less been kind to Pitino and his players and refrained from razzing them about the ongoing investigations into sex parties for UofL recruits and players, but Pitt fans weren’t as considerate.
When Pitino was introduced, fans in the student section of the arena, nicknamed the “Oakland Zoo,” began throwing fake dollar bills with Pitino’s face on them into the air.
Prior to the game, students were given sheets with instructions reading, “You will receive fake money. During introductions yell: ‘Rick pays too!'” The students obliged and also yelled, “March Sadness” in reference to the team’s postseason ban.