PITTSBURGH — Reyne Smith knocked down a career-best seven 3-pointers and Louisville defeated Pittsburgh 82-78 on Saturday, the sixth straight win for the Cardinals.

What You Need To Know

  • No. 6 Kentucky made 16 of 32 3- pointers in a 95-90 victory over No. 14 Mississippi State

  • Jaxson Robinson scored a season-high 27 points

  • The Wildcats have now defeated Mississippi State in 19 consecutive regular-season meetings dating to the 2008-09 season

  • The Wildcats host Texas A&M on Tuesday, Jan. 14

The loss snapped Pittsburgh’s 15-game home win streak that included eight wins over Atlantic Coast Conference opponents. Pitt had won its last five meetings with Louisville.

Louisville used a new lineup of Chucky Hepburn, J’Vonne Hadley, Terrence Edwards Jr., Reyne Smith and James Scott for the first time this year.

Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey said, “That’s a great college atmosphere. I’m proud of our guys. They showed a lot of resilience. There were a lot of times during the game where they punched, but our guys responded on many occasions, both offensively and defensively. They answered the call and answered the challenge that they presented.”

The Cardinals never let Pitt get the upper hand and held on to a 35-34 lead at halftime.

Louisville is 10-1 when leading at halftime and 12-0 when leading with five minutes to play under Kelsey. 

The Cardinals out-rebounded the Panthers 44-31 with a 17-5 edge on the offensive glass.

Smith was 7 of 11 from long range and his final 3 with 1:24 left gave the Cardinals an 80-75 lead. Ishmael Leggett’s running 3 cut the Pitt deficit to 2. J’Vonne Hadley missed from beyond the arc with :34 left, but the ball caromed back to him and Chucky Hepburn hit a driving layup with :11 left.

Louisville (12-5, 5-1) came in after scoring a 74-64 win over Clemson for its fifth straight win, the first time the program has strung together that many wins in four years. Hadley scored 32 points in the win over the Tigers, but it wasn’t until he scored a layup and a 3-pointer back-to-back around the five-minute mark that he broke into double-figure scoring against Pitt.

Smith knocked down four 3-pointers in the second half, the first three to put the Cardinals in front in a game that saw 10 lead changes. He finished with 25 points. Hepburn finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Terrence Edwards Jr. added 14 points with four assists and Hadley finished with 13 points.

Jaland Lowe was 13-for-13 from the free throw line and finished with 24 points to lead Pitt (12-4, 3-2). Leggett hit 4 of 6 3-pointers to add 16 points and Damian Dunn hit 3 of 4 from distance off the bench to add 15. Cameron Corhen had 11 points.

Louisville continues its two-game road trip at Syracuse on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network.

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