Marquette 70 (17) Louisville 71

No strangers to gut-wrenching losses during Buzz Williams' three-year tenure as coach, the Marquette Golden Eagles added yet another to their unenviable résumé Saturday.

In total control with an 18-point lead over the Louisville Cardinals and just under 6 minutes left in the game, MU fell apart in every way possible and sealed its fate with two huge blunders in the final 24.3 seconds.

First, Dwight Buycks took an ill-advised shot with the Golden Eagles ahead by one and needing only to run the clock down and force the Cardinals to foul. Then, Jimmy Butler and Jae Crowder failed to guard a pick and roll correctly, leading to a wide-open layup for Louisville with 4.0 seconds left.

That shot, knocked down by Kyle Kuric, wound up being the difference as MU fell, 71-70, in front of a frenzied crowd of 21,485 at the brand-new KFC Yum! Center. The Cardinals outscored the Golden Eagles, 24-5, over the final 5 minutes 44 seconds, with Preston Knowles hitting 4 three-pointers to spark the comeback.

“Normally the close ones are close from start to finish,” said Williams. “They're not several-possession games that turn into a one- or two-possession game. Our experience in those close games is beneficial in a lot of ways, but we've never had a game where we were ahead the way that we were and then finished the way that we did.”

The game never should have come close to finishing the way that it did.

MU (12-6, 3-2 Big East Conference) seemingly had everything working in its favor as the second half wore on. It had fouled out shot-blocker Gorgui Dieng and was continually attacking the basket as Terrence Jennings was playing passively on defense with four fouls.

The Golden Eagles were causing Louisville (14-3, 3-1) fits on the other end with pressure defense, forcing the Cardinals into turnovers in bunches and mostly limiting them to jumpers. After Darius Johnson-Odom (team-high 16 points) knocked down a pair of free throws at the 5:44 mark, the Golden Eagles were up, 65-47, and the win looked academic.

Instead, the Cardinals came roaring back. Knowles hit a pair of threes and big man Stephan Van Treese scored on a pair of layups to give Louisville 10 straight points. Chris Smith followed with a layup and then Knowles had another three that pulled the Cardinals to within 65-62 with 1:54 left.

MU, which had turned completely passive on offense while Louisville made its run, finally got a driving layup from Crowder to make it 67-62. Those were the Golden Eagles' first points in a span of 4:08.

Knowles came right back down, though, and banged in another three, nearly blowing the roof off the building and stretching the Cardinals' run to 18-2. Buycks came back with a tough drive to give the Golden Eagles a little more breathing room, but MU then fouled Jennings with 49.8 seconds left.

The 6-foot-9 junior, shooting 62.7% from the line coming in, hit both to make it 69-67. Then Louisville coach Rick Pitino had his team foul Junior Cadougan, a 43.5% shooter from the line coming in.

The sophomore guard, who was 6 for 6 on the day to that point, missed the first and made the second. MU then fouled Jennings in the paint, and he calmly knocked down two more free throws to get Louisville to within 70-69 with 24.4 seconds remaining.

At that point, all MU had to do was inbound the ball, get over half court and then protect it while waiting for Louisville to foul. Instead, Buycks took the inbounds pass, came roaring up the left side of the court, dribbled the ball behind his back and went to the basket, where Jennings, a noted shot blocker, awaited him.

Jennings got a piece of it, and the Cardinals collected the rebound and got the ball back to half court, at which point Pitino called timeout to set up a final play.

“I'm not sure what he was thinking,” Williams said. “That was my fault more so than it was his. I thought that he broke their pressure, and I was about to call a timeout but didn't because we broke the pressure and just thought he was going to dribble it out. But he didn't.”

Said Buycks: “I knew there was a defender behind me and another one trying to trap me, so I split the defense and there was one man to beat. Went up to the man, there was a lot of contact on the play, I didn't get the call, so they got the rebound and went down with it.”

When asked if he realized that he didn't need to take a shot in that situation, Buycks said he was trying to draw a foul from Jennings.

“I was actually trying to get fouled (on the drive),” he said. “Either way - if I would have brought it out I would have gotten fouled. I was trying to get fouled and I didn't get fouled.”

Coming out of Louisville's timeout, the Cardinals worked the ball around and eventually found Kuric, normally a three-point shooter, wide open under the basket. He scored with no resistance, and just like that Louisville had the lead with 4.0 seconds left.

“Late in the game or depending on matchups, we'll switch ball screens,” Williams said. “Jae and Jimmy were involved in the switch. Somehow it was miscommunicated and (Kuric) got behind us. It should have been a switch; one of them did and one of them didn't. I don't remember which one of them it was.”

Williams called timeout to set up a final play, but needing to travel the length of the court limited MU's options. In the end, Butler (15 points, nine rebounds) got off a fall-away jumper from about 18 feet, but unlike last year in dramatic wins at Connecticut and St. John's, the shot didn't fall.

“We were supposed to win the game,” said Buycks, who had 13 points, five rebounds, five assists and five turnovers. “Everybody knows that we didn't close it out the way we were supposed to.”