Louisville finally wins again; so do Marquette and Kansas

The Jayhawks led by 15 at one point in the game, but the Mountaineers weren’t going to go away quietly. Center Aaric Murray led West Virginia with 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting, but the rest of the team struggled to find the basket. West Virginia shot just 37 percent as a team.

The game stayed as close as it did because Kansas had a hard time holding onto the ball, committing 16 turnovers on the night. It was the sixth straight game the Jayhawks have held an opponent to under 60 points, as they improved to 7-0 in Big 12 play.

Marquette struggled a bit in the first half, unable to capitalize on the Bulls’ sloppy effort. South Florida averages only 10.3 turnovers a game, but each team had eight turnovers just 12 minutes into the game.

Luckily for the Golden Eagles, Blue decided to have a career night. The team’s leading scorer with nearly 14 points a game, Blue scored nine straight points at one point during the first half to drag his team kicking and screaming to a four-point lead at half time. He ended the game with a career-high 30 points on 13-of-20 shooting. The rest of the Golden Eagles combined for 33 points on 14-of-29 shooting.

The Cardinals started out the game a bit sloppy, building a 12-point lead that the Panthers slowly whittled down to just six points by the half. Louisville shot 41 percent during the opening frame. Pittsburgh made another late run with a minute left in the game, but struggled to make free throws down the stretch, ending the game just 3-of-12 from the free throw line.

Blackshear, a sophomore, will be sitting out due to a shoulder injury he aggravated during practice over the weekend. The 6’5 guard missed most of his freshman year with a major injury to the same shoulder, so the Cardinals are understandably being cautious with the current situation.

20 games into the season, Blackshear has averaged 9.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22 minutes per game. He struggled badly in his most recent game, shooting 1-of-9 from the floor in the Cardinals’ loss to Georgetown.

No. 12 Louisville will try to end a three-game skid Monday night, but it won’t be easy against a Pittsburgh team whose talent belies its ranking.

Louisville has fallen hard since attaining the No. 1 ranking in the country. It started out not seeming so bad, with a tightly contested loss to Syracuse. But that was followed up with nine-point loss to an unranked Villanova team that went on to beat Syracuse as well, and a failure to score in a one-possession game against Georgetown Saturday continued the skid.

That interior defense spells trouble for West Virginia. As a team, they shoot 29.5 percent from three, and none of their best players pose much of a threat from beyond the arc. Bob Huggins’ squad hasn’t been overly successful - they’re 9-10, just 2-4 in conference play - and their strength goes up against Kansas’ strength. Nobody’s a particularly good scorer, as no player averages over ten points a game, but they do work on the offensive glass and rarely turn the ball over.

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