The Louisville Cardinals held serve with the Marquette Eagles during the second half of Thursday's night game, earning a 84-71 win to advance to the semifinals of the 2012 Big East Tournament. Rick Pitino's squad avenged a January lost to the Eagles, thanks to solid defense and a couple of big performances.
The Eagles vastly outshot the Cardinals, 44.8 to 37.7 percent on the night. Louisville held a big advantage on the boards, however, 46 to 38. Of those rebounds, 23 came on the offensive end, giving the opportunistic Cardinals plenty of second chance baskets. They also had 15 steals on the night, and forced 27 Marquette turnovers.
Kyle Kuric led Louisville in scoring with 20 points on 7-for-18 shooting. Peyton Siva did it all, however, scoring 18 points with eight rebounds, six assists and four steals. Gourgui Dieng and Jared Swopshire combined for 22 rebounds for the game.
Darius Johnson-Odom led the Golden Eagles with 23 points, going 8-for-19 from the field. He hit his team's only two 3-pointers for the game, going 2-for-7 from long range while his teammates went 0-for-6. Jae Crowder picked up his third-straight double. His 10 points came on 4-for-13 shooting, however.
The Cardinals will face the winner of Thursday night's South Florida-Notre Dame game at 9:00 p.m ET on Friday.
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