First Upset Of Tourney, No. 13 Morehead State Beats No. 4 Louisville
In the first upset of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the 13th seeded Morehead State Eagles shocked the 4th seeded Louisville Cardinals.
Morehead State's Demonte Harper hit a three-pointer with six seconds left to take a 62-61 lead and that's the way the game would end. Mike Marra launched a three as time expired but it fell short, ending Louisville's tournament sooner than most would have expected.
Morehead's Terrance Hill led all scorers with 23 points while Chris Smith lead the way for Louisville with 17 points.
The Eagles will play the winner of the later game between No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 12 Richmond.
After Morehead State called timeout for its last possession with 23.8 seconds left, Harper seemed an unlikely candidate to take the most important shot in the program's short, unheralded history. He was 2 for 9 from the floor and hadn't hit any of his five 3-point attempts.
Meanwhile, Morehead had the big fella, Faried, not to mention Terrance Hill (5 for 6) and Ty Proffitt (3 for 6), each of whom were lighting it up from 3-point range all afternoon.
The Eagles, however, didn't do anything by the book in this one.
If they were going to win, it was supposed to be on the shoulders of Faried, a 57-percent lifetime shooter and the all-time rebounding leader in Division I. Faried pulled down 17 rebounds but had a terrible day from the field -- 4 for 17 for 12 points -- and wasn't the biggest factor in this game.
He'll get another chance, though. He can thank Harper -- whose only shot of the second half gave him a total of eight points -- and Hill, who scored a career-high 23, including 12 during a 16-4 run that turned a seven-point deficit into a 57-52 lead with 5:24 left.
Louisville answered with the next nine points and the upset chances looked all but over.
But the Eagles worked the ball to Faried on the next possession and he converted two free throws after a foul. Then, Morehead fouled Elisha Justice, who missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Faried got the rebound, Morehead State called timeout and coach Donnie Tyndall set up the play that would make him a winner over Rick Pitino.
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