The Indiana Hoosiers rallied late to beat Louisville 74-66 on Monday in the third-place game in the Empire Classic in New York.
Xavier Johnson led the Hoosiers (4-1) with 14 points and a game-high five assists, and he added four rebounds.
Louisville (2-3) led 58-51 with nine minutes to play before Indiana cut into the lead, which was 64-61 on JJ Traynor’s dunk with 4:23 remaining in regulation.
The Hoosiers then scored 13 straight points, taking a one-point lead on Johnson’s layup with 3:06 left, and a 74-64 advantage on his two free throws with 10 seconds remaining.
Johnson made five of six free-throw attempts in the final 40 seconds.
The Cardinals finally ended the drought on Skyy Clark’s layup with four ticks left on the clock.
Clark led Louisville with a team-high 19 points, while Tre White was the only other Cardinals player in double figures with 10 points. Brandon Huntley-Hatfield pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.
Both teams were busy at the free-throw line, with Indiana making 25 of 34 foul shots (73.5 percent), to 21 of 29 (72.4 percent) for Louisville.
The teams weren’t nearly as accurate from the floor, with Indiana connecting on 24 of 53 field-goal attempts (45.3 percent) and Louisville just 20 of 56 (35.7 percent). Parts of that were misfires from beyond the arc, as the Hoosiers were 1 of 11 (9.1 percent), the Cardinals 5 of 19 (26.3 percent).
Trailing 34-29 at halftime, Louisville used a 24-7 spurt to get going in the second half. Guard Ty-Laur Johnson came off the bench to drive the lane and dish for teammates’ dunks as he totaled a team-high four assists for the game. His two free throws with 9:04 left had Louisville up 58-51 before the Hoosiers rallied.
–Field Level Media
