13-seed Morehead St. upsets Louisville

DENVER -- Rick Pitino has suffered some tough losses in his career. He recalled the most famous one Thursday, saying, "I lost a game with 0.6 [on the clock], 75 feet away from the basket."

His reference, of course, was to Grant Hill's pass to Christian Laettner for the buzzer-beater that gave Duke a thrilling overtime win over Pitino-coached Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA East Regional final. But Pitino suffered another Thursday that had him talking about the ending of his career at Louisville.

Demonte Harper's step-back three-pointer from the top of the arc with 4.2 seconds left gave 13th-seeded Morehead State a shocking 62-61 victory over fourth-seeded Louisville in a second-round opener of the NCAA sub-regional in Denver.

The Cardinals were runner-up to UConn in the Big East Tournament, but after losing star guard Preston Knowles to a sprained foot in the second half, they weren't good enough to hold off a determined in-state rival seeking a historic victory.

"This is as tough a loss as I've had in coaching," Pitino said, "and I've been coaching a long time. After tonight, maybe too long." Pitino spoke of how his "window is closing in coaching," but he clarified that he's not stepping away now but knows he's in the final years of his career at 58.

What so vexed Pitino was a missed foul shot near the end -- "Our Achilles' heel all year," he said -- poor defense on Harper's game-winner and the fact his undersized team squandered an eight-point second-half lead and got outrebounded 41-29.

Morehead State (25-9), which is located 130 miles from Louisville and plays in the Ohio Valley Conference, lost to the Cardinals (25-10) two years ago in the NCAAs. It had a 13-game losing streak against Louisville extending all the way back to 1957, so you can imagine what this game meant to the Eagles.

"It's without question the biggest win in the history of our program," MSU coach Donnie Tyndall said. "To be a game against an in-state power and knock them off, I don't think it's ever been bigger than that in the history of our school."

Morehead State plays 12th-seeded Richmond Saturday.

Led by the strength of forward Kenneth Faried, a potential first-round NBA draft pick, the Eagles led 15-2 as Louisville went scoreless in the first six minutes. Faried, who blocked Mike Marra's attempt from the corner to end the game, grabbed 17 rebounds to go with 12 points; Terrance Hill scored a career-high 23, and Ty Proffitt had 13.

Louisville guards Knowles (nine points, five turnovers) and Preston Siva (three points, five turnovers) struggled. Chris Smith was the Cards' only double-figures scorer with 17 points. Just before suffering his sprained foot, Knowles committed consecutive turnovers that triggered a 20-8 Morehead run that gave the Eagles a 57-52 lead.

Louisville responded with a 9-0 run to gain a 61-57 advantage. But then, Faried got an offensive rebound and made two foul shots, and Louisville's Elisha Justice missed the front end of a one-and-one with 30.4 seconds left to give Morehead the ball.

Harper was 0-for-5 from three-point range compared to Hill's 5-for-6, but Tyndall believed Harper could create his own shot. Harper said, "During the media timeout, coach said, 'I dreamt about this last night. I'm going to put it right in your hands, Demonte. I want you to pull up and win the game off a three-pointer.' I said, 'Coach, I'm going to hit the shot.' "

And he did.