Cards Advance to NCAA 2nd Round With Win Over South Florida 83-79

Mark BlankenbakerMarch 19, 2026

The University of Louisville men’s basketball team withstood a late game USF run to prevail 83-79 in their NCAA Tournament opener Thursday afternoon at the KeyBank Center.

With the win, Louisville (24-10) advances to the round of 32 to face the winner between Michigan State and North Dakota State on Saturday.

“I’m going to give a lot of credit to Bryan (Hodgson) and his team at South Florida,” said UofL head coach Pat Kelsey. “They went into the tournament, I think they had won 14 of 15. You could just see it when you watched them on tape. They were firing on all cylinders, extremely connected, ridiculously well coached. They had, as you can imagine, our full attention. Got a little bit of additional motivation, which can always help a little bit, but just so much respect for Bryan and the job he did.”

Four Cardinals finished in double figures led by Isaac McKneely who poured in 23 points, going 8-for-11 from the field while matching a career high seven 3-pointers. Ryan Conwell chipped in 18 points along with six assists and four rebounds. Sananda Fru recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 boards and J’Vonne Hadley added 10 points and five rebounds.

Hadley got the game started with a 3-pointer on the Cardinals’ first possession. McKneely converted a steal into a basket to put Louisville up 5-0 in the first two minutes. The Bulls (25-9) countered with seven unanswered points to go on top 7-5. A dunk by Fru sparked a 19-4 run with 3-pointers by McKneely, Conwell, Wooley and Khalifa to open up a 24-11 lead entering the 8-minute media timeout. A three-point play by USF’s Izaiyah Nelson stopped the run before McKneely drained a pair of threes to give Louisville its largest lead of the half at 30-16 with 5:02 left. The Bulls pulled within eight twice in the final three minutes of the half, but Rodgers sank a pair of free throws to give the Cards a 37-27 lead entering halftime.

In the first half, nine different Cardinals contributed to the scoring column led by McNeely’s 11 points behind 4-of-5 shooting including a trio of 3-pointers. Through the first 20 minutes, Louisville shot 40% (12-of-30) from the field and 41% (7-of-17) from long distance while the Bulls shot 29% (10-of-35) going 1-of-17 from beyond the arc.

In the second half, Vangelis Zougris opened the scoring and the teams traded baskets before a 21-6 run fueled by a trio of threes from McKneely and two by Conwell gave the Cards a 62-39 lead, their largest of the game with 12:50 left to play. Louisville held a double-digit lead until midway through the half when USF battled back, using an 13-4 run in a span of 6:46 to pull within five at 79-74 with 25 seconds left on the clock. Free throws down the stretch by Hadley and Conwell gave the Cards some breathing room and Joseph Pinion’s 3-pointer with five seconds on the clock brought the final score to 83-79.

Overall, Louisville shot 54% (28-of-52) from the floor and 52% (13-of-25) from 3-point range compared to USF’s 39% (30-of-37) from the field and 15% (5-of-33) from long distance. The Cards also held a 41-37 edge on the boards while the teams were even with 15 second chance points each. USF led 44-30 in points in the paint and produced 24 points off of 22 Cardinal turnovers. Pinion led all scorers with 27 points.

“I’m proud of our guys,” said Kelsey. “It might not have been the prettiest thing in the world the last 10 minutes, but when a team’s season is on the line, they’re going to play with reckless abandon like they did. Winning Tournament games isn’t easy, but I’m proud of these guys to have the resolve and just to figure out a way to gut it out.”