Louisville’s Russ Smith matched a career high 31 points to lead the top seeded Cardinals to a 77-69 victory over Oregon Friday night in the Midwest regional semi-final of the NCAA basketball tournament. Louisville had their largest lead of the evening… by 18 points… with nine-minutes remaining, but Oregon made six-straight field goals to pull within six at 70 -64… the closest anyone has been to the Cardinals in a couple of weeks. Louisville downed Duke yesterday 85 – 63 to advance to the Final Four next weekend… They lost guard Kevin Ware in yesterday’s game when he went down in the first half with a broken leg.
Turning to the diamond… Number two ranked Oregon State lost two of three games over the weekend to San Diego. After falling in the Thursday opener 7-4 the Beavs bounced back for a 14-5 win Friday afternoon. But, the Toreros had a little bounce of their own… downing Oregon State 13-3 Saturday afternoon..
Meanwhile, number 12 Oregon had their Easter brooms out, downing the Washington Huskies in three straight. It was 5-3 Oregon Thursday, then the Ducks edged the Dawgs one-nothing on Friday. Oregon completed the sweep with a six-run shutout victory Saturday.
