Mike James leads Cardinals past Canes
With a depleted roster and hope at a premium, Kenny Payne has been asking his Louisville men’s basketball players for “special nights.”
Mike James and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield rose to the occasion Wednesday at Miami. And, unlike the last Cardinal to go nuts against the Hurricanes, they walked out of the Watsco Center as winners.
Their career nights powered the biggest victory of Payne’s tenure, 80-71 on the home court of a team coming off a trip to last season’s Final Four.
The second-year head coach was doused with water when he entered the visitor’s locker room after the final horn sounded, then showered his team with praise during his postgame news conference.
“For my players to go out and play as hard as they did, as together as they did, through adversity and all the doubt,” he said, “I’m proud of them.”
In securing just the 10th win of the Payne era, U of L (6-9, 1-3 ACC) snapped not only its 22-game road losing streak but also dealt the Hurricanes (11-4, 2-2) their first home loss since Feb. 25, 2023.
To do so, the seven scholarship players at Payne’s disposal had to rally from a nine-point deficit in the second half and hold on for dear life after taking a 61-60 lead with 8:36 remaining in regulation.
Louisville kept Miami at bay by holding the country’s 13th-best team in terms of field-goal percentage entering the game (50.2%) to 5-for-25 shooting over the final 14:20. The Hurricanes finished well below their season average of 85.2 points per contest.
Forcing 13 turnovers, which the Cards turned into 24 points, certainly helped, too.
“We were in gaps; we got out to shooters,” Payne said. “We made things hard for them. They missed some open shots, but as the game wore on, I thought our conditioning and our energy was really good. I thought we could have played another eight to 10 minutes like that.
“I preach (conditioning), and they hate me for that,” he added. “But these games are why you do that.”
James’ 26-point performance called to mind El Ellis’ 33-point outing during a 93-85 loss on Feb. 11, 2023, in Coral Gables, Florida. When Payne ran back the tape of that game this week, he saw the blueprint for a victory.
At the top of Wednesday night’s game plan: be the aggressor. James delivered, and needed to, with his teammates going 3 for 10 from the field during the opening 12:53.
With eight of James’ loved ones in attendance — and a chip on his shoulder due to Miami not recruiting him out of Oak Ridge High School — the redshirt sophomore scored 16 of U of L’s first 20 points. He poured in 10 answered during a span of 2 minutes, 30 seconds to give the Cards an 18-10 advantage at the 12:45 mark of the first half.
“I have these games marked on my schedule. I want to have good games (against Miami),” James said. “Shots were falling, and my teammates kept building more and more confidence in me to keep shooting.”
The breathing room disappeared in a hurry. The Hurricanes ended the half on a 31-19 run to lead 41-37 at the break. And by the 14:10 mark of the second half, they had built their largest lead of the night, 56-47.
That’s when shots stopped falling for coach Jim Larrañaga’s team. And when James’ cohorts picked up the slack.
Fifteen of Huntley-Hatfield’s career-high 22 points came during the final 20 minutes. The junior big man scored more points during that stretch, and finished with more rebounds, than he amassed across 63 minutes in back-to-back losses against Virginia and Pittsburgh.
“I really just wanted to come out and do as I please,” he told play-by-play announcer Paul Rogers during a postgame interview on the Cardinal Sports Network. “I know what type of player I am; I know where I can be effective. And, tonight, I did that.
“The past two games, I didn’t really perform how I expect myself to or how people are expecting me to, so I just wanted to come here and play with a lot of force. During the first half, I didn’t really do that; but my coaches and my teammates were always in my ear (saying), ‘Go with more force. Go with more force. Go with more force.'”
Huntley-Hatfield, Skyy Clark (nine) and Curtis Williams (eight) combined for 32 of Louisville’s 43 second-half points. Clark produced one of the biggest plays, stealing an inbounds pass after a layup from James gave the Cards a 63-61 lead with 7:57 to play and burying a 3-pointer to make it a two-possession game.
Wednesday marked Williams’ third consecutive double-digit performance off the bench. And not to be outdone, fellow first-year players Kaleb Glenn and Ty-Laur Johnson totaled 10 points on 4-for-7 shooting, 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
But the grit U of L showed started and ended with James, who scored seven of the team’s final 17 points and came up with a clutch steal that sent Clark to the free-throw line with 52 seconds on the clock. The Illinois transfer made both shots, turning a four-point lead into six, as part of a 9-0 run that closed out the victory.
“Mike James is a spirit child,” Payne told Cardinal Sports Network analyst Bob Valvano during a postgame interview. “His spirit propels us — not just when he’s playing great.”
Louisville returns to the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday for a noon tipoff against N.C. State, which fell to 11-4 (3-1) with a 13-point loss Wednesday to North Carolina.
With any luck for Payne, the Cards can use this breakthrough moment as a turning point in the 2023-24 season as he tries to prove to athletics director Josh Heird that he’s worth keeping around for a Year 3 at his alma mater.
“We have no excuses to play down from this level,” James said. “We have to carry it on to the rest of the ACC games and see what happens.”
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
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