Kihei Clark became the winningest player in Atlantic Coast Conference history as No. 7 Virginia escaped with a 61-58 victory at last-place Louisville on Wednesday night.
Clark scored 14 points and posted his 71st career conference win (regular season plus ACC tournament), breaking a tie with Duke great Shane Battier (1997-2001).
Armaan Franklin also had 14 points as the Cavaliers (20-4, 12-3 ACC) moved into a tie for the conference lead with Pittsburgh.
Ben Vander Plas had 10 points and 11 rebounds and Jayden Gardner chipped in 10 points for the Cavaliers, who have won three straight and 10 of their last 11 games.
The Cardinals (3-23, 1-14) lost their fourth straight game and matched last season’s 6-14 ACC record for the most conference losses in school history.
El Ellis scored a game-high 21 points, Jae’Lyn Withers added 12 and Mike James had 10 for Louisville.
The Cardinals used a 10-2 run to seize a 42-41 lead midway through the second half.
The Cavaliers answered with a 12-2 spurt for a 53-44 lead, capped by Clark’s jumper with 6:32 left.
Virginia’s largest lead was 55-45 on another bucket by Clark with 5:16 remaining.
Louisville cut the deficit to 61-58 on JJ Traynor’s jumper with 31 seconds left.
After Clark missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 30.3 seconds left, Louisville had a chance to tie but Kamari Lands’ 3-pointer was off the mark in the final seconds.
Virginia has swept the last six meetings and 15 of the last 16 against Louisville.
The Cavaliers scored the final 12 points of the first half to take a 29-26 lead into the break.
Ellis scored 13 straight Louisville points in one stretch, capped by a 3-pointer for an early 18-12 lead.
The Cardinals led 26-17 on James’ free throw with 5:18 left, but they didn’t score for the rest of the half.
Clark, the last remaining player from Virginia’s 2019 national championship team, dished six assists and needs three more to break Virginia’s career record of 683 by John Crotty (1988-91).
–Field Level Media
