They played into overtime, DePaul and Louisville trading surges, trading interludes of futility, trading the lead all Wednesday night.
The Blue Demons, in their inconsistent season, often had floundered under similar circumstances. But they were not about to back down, not in the comfort of their Allstate Arena, not even in the face of Rick Pitino and his 15th-ranked Cardinals.
The numbers would tell this story clearly. The Demons outrebounded Louisville 48-28. They held Louisville star Reece Gaines to 10 points in regulation, to only 15 on 3-of-13 shooting over the full 45 minutes.
They made 24 of their 30 foul shots while Louisville made only 11 of 16. They limited Louisville to only eight fast-break points and, remarkably, to two second-chance points.
That is how DePaul carried the mighty Cardinals into the final minute before sophomore point guard Drake Diener dropped a three-pointer for a two-point lead with 19 seconds remaining that held up for the 79-76 victory.
“Sam [Hoskin] set a screen up top and coach [Dave Leitao] had been yelling at me all night to take advantage of them,” Diener said. “For some reason both their guys left me on that one and left me wide open. That’s a shot I expect to hit.”
Pitino immediately called time out. Then Taquan Dean missed a 5-footer, Marvin Stone missed a tip and Kendall Dartez missed a tip before Diener grabbed the ball with 1.2 seconds to play and was fouled.
He made his first free throw and missed his second. Stone’s last desperation heave went far wide and the Blue Demons had their first victory over Louisville since Feb. 25, 1995.
“We had a lot of players step up tonight,” Blue Demons forward Andre Brown said. He was right.
There was guard LeVar Seals, whose defensive labors frustrated Gaines and resulted in the Cardinals star’s wretched game. There was forward Delonte Holland, who scored 14 off the bench, and there was Brown himself, who played 42 minutes and scored 14 points with nine rebounds.
Most of all there was forward Hoskin, who has been his team’s most consistent and most valuable player all through this season. He was again against the Cardinals, putting in 41 minutes, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds, scoring a game-high 21 points and making the play that turned this game.
It came at the end of regulation with Louisville up two. Hoskin grabbed an offensive rebound, was fouled and heard the whistle blow just as the buzzer sounded.
“I knew [Cardinals forward Luke Whitehead] pushed me,” he later said. “But I was shocked to hear the whistle at the end of the game. I’ve never seen that call made ever.”
But it was made Wednesday night, and it sent Hoskin to the free-throw line with no time showing on the clock.
“I didn’t think too much,” he said. “I knew I was going to knock them down and I figured we’d go into overtime and win the game.”
“I’m not only happy, but very much proud of the effort we put forth tonight,” Leitao said after Hoskin indeed did knock them down and his team did win the game. “Guys just stepped up big. I think we learned something about ourselves tonight. We learned what we can do if we stick together. We really, really hung tough.”
