Duke, Louisville Cause a Brownout at Dallas : Cardinals End Dream for Dale and LSU, 88-77

No one booed Billy Thompson Saturday. The University of Louisville’s senior center was a hero all the way.

In fact, Thompson was nearly perfect. Nearly, that is, because he did miss a shot and because he didn’t shut down LSU’s star forward, John Williams, until early in the second half. He let Williams have a basket with just more than 15 minutes to play, a shot Williams pushed up with one hand while turning around and falling down.

Credit Thompson with taking Williams out of the game from that point on and, therefore, for playing a major part in ending LSU’s mystical, magical dream of an NCAA basketball title despite a year of adversity that had included injuries, chicken pox and academic ineligibility.

Louisville’s 88-77 victory over LSU, the underdog of this Final Four, jolted the tournament back to reality.

Louisville (31-7 with a 16-game winning streak) will play Duke (37-2 with a 21-game winning streak) for the title Monday night at Reunion Arena.

An NCAA title would go a long way toward vindicating Thompson, who came out of Camden (N.J.) High School as a star, only to be labeled a disappointment more than once during the last few years. The low point came this season when his own fans booed him through a midseason slump.

But Saturday afternoon, Thompson scored 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting, grabbed 10 rebounds and even added 4 assists to go with the defensive job he performed while holding LSU’s leading scorer to 14 points.

Thompson has been known to downplay any feelings of having something to prove, but after giving Louisville such a boost into the final game and finding himself surrounded by a wall of reporters as he sat in front of his locker, icing his battered left elbow, he gave in to a little smile and admitted: “It does feel good that we’ve made it this far and that I was contributing to it. In a sense, it is gratifying.”

Senior guard Milt Wagner also had 22 points for Louisville, along with 11 assists. As usual, all five starters scored in double figures for the Cardinals.

That makes for a long day for any defense, even LSU’s “freak” defense.

Louisville guard Jeff Hall said the LSU defense wasn’t all that freaky. “Actually, they played us with a 2-3 zone most of the way and just switched up a couple of times,” he said. “But they make you take a couple of seconds to recognize what they’re doing.”

Louisville shot just 46.9% in the first half but came back to hit 63.9% in the second. It was the other way around for LSU, which shot 57.1% in the first half but 35% in the second.

Louisville Coach Denny Crum admitted that he “chewed on” a couple of his seniors at halftime. But he did not really make any major changes to account for the way the game turned around in the first few minutes of the second half.

Crum said: “We just picked up the tempo and got after them a little more. The pace of the game early was to our liking, even though we weren’t ahead in the ballgame. I didn’t feel good about being down by eight (44-36 at halftime), but I did feel good about the pace. The faster the game, the better for us.”

Louisville is used to playing up-tempo the whole way. LSU seemed to fade a little.

And there was no way that LSU would continue that hot-shooting start--especially after Louisville shut down the middle. LSU had to rely on outside shots by small forward Don Redden, who had 22 points, guard Derrick Taylor, who had 16, and guard Anthony Wilson, who had 15.

After scoring 12 points in the first half, Williams was limited to the one basket in the second.

Thompson said he never thought that Williams was getting frustrated at not being able to get back into the offense. “I was pushing harder on defense,” Thompson said, “but I felt like he just kept going about his business, playing hard. He’s the type of player that you can’t ever let up on.”

LSU Coach Dale Brown thought the difference was not so much Louisville’s defense in the second half as what LSU failed to do offensively. Brown said: “Once we beat their press up the floor, we did not get into our offensive rhythm. . . . We speeded up our offense instead of staying with the rhythm that was working. That was when we went on that little dry spell there.”

What LSU hit was more than a little dry spell. It was more like a drought.

From the time Williams scored on the prayer shot he flipped up with 15:13 left until Redden tipped in a rebound with 10:05 left, LSU scored just one point, a free throw by Redden. LSU was outscored, 17-1, in that stretch as Louisville gained a 10-point lead.

LSU closed within four points a few minutes later, but that was as close as the Tigers could come.