CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Stanford was no match for Louisville in the regular-season finale. Five days later, the Cardinal proved a much tougher out.
Chucky Hepburn’s second-chance jumper at the buzzer lifted second-seeded Louisville to a thrilling 75-73 in the ACC tournament quarterfinals, sending Stanford home after two weeks on the road.
Oziyah Sellers scored 22 points and Maxime Raynaud had 17 despite fouling out after playing just 23 minutes.
Louisville’s Terrence Edwards Jr. missed a step-back with 3 seconds to go. The ball caromed to Stanford’s Chisom Opakra, as coach Kyle Smith appeared to signal for a timeout. But Hepburn knocked the ball free, corralled it and send it through the hoop as the final horn sounded.
The two teams met in the regular-season finale on March 8, with the Cardinals drubbing the Cardinal 68-48. That was part of this two-week road trip for Stanford, elongated travel that may have finally caught up with the team late in the game Thursday.
The first quarterfinal of the evening session, pitting Stanford and Louisville against each other, was a matchup of two first-year coaches who led impressive improvements this season.
At Louisville, Pat Kelsey took over a program that went 12-52 the previous two seasons, winning just five ACC games. Using the transfer portal, he rapidly rebuilt the team, capturing the No. 2 seed in this week’s tournament and earning conference coach of the year honors.
At Stanford, Kyle Smith took a squad picked to finish 17th out of 18 teams in the ACC and led it to within a second of a 20th win and a spot in the tournament semifinals.
This week’s tournament was billed as the last chance for North Carolina, Wake Forest and possibly SMU to make their cases for at-large NCAA Tournament bids. But after beating rival Cal on Wednesday, Stanford positioned itself to enter the bubble chat – but it could not finish off the Cardinals.
Louisville guard Chucky Hepburn scores the game winning basket between Stanford forward Chisom Okpara and guard Benny Gealer during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Thursday, March 13, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Louisville jumped out to a 6-0 lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Noah Waterman, while Stanford struggled to hit shots early on. The Cardinal connected on just one of their first seven attempts.
But Stanford settled in, scoring the next nine points to take the lead.
Offense was a chore for much of the first half and the game was tied 11-11 with 9:30 before the break.
Raynaud, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds in the earlier meeting, got off to a slow start, hitting just two of his first eight shots.
On the other end, Louisville star Chucky Hepburn didn’t hit his first field goal until knocking down a jumper with 3:06 left in the half.
The teams were still tied, 30-30, with 35.1 to go until halftime.
Out of a timeout, Ryan Agarwal drove along the baseline and then slung a pass to the far corner, where Chisom Okpara was waiting to catch-and-can a 3-pointer that sent Stanford to the locker room ahead 33-30.
Raynaud was whistled for his third foul 2:22 into the second half, a call that angered the Frenchman and appeared to befuddle his coach.
But even sitting its star didn’t slow down Stanford, which ripped off an 11-0 run with Raynaud on the bench to open up a 52-37 lead with 14:32.
Raynaud checked back in with 14:16 to go but was whistled for his fourth foul less than a minute later, sending him back to a seated position on the sideline.
Louisville ate away that 15-point deficit by driving to the rim and scoring in transition, using a 12-0 run to trim Stanford’s lead to 57-56 with 9 to play.
Raynaud had a chance to stop the run at 9-0 but missed a pair of free throws. He finally ended it with a 3-pointer that gave the Cardinal a little – very little – breathing room, up 60-56 with 8:35 left.
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It took Louisville about a minute to erase that, tying the game 60-60 on a thunderous put-back dunk by James Scott.
After Hepburn’s late 3 helped Louisville build a five-point lead, Raynaud fouled out, setting a moving screen with 2:57 to go.
The game was tied with four minutes left, but Hepburn’s 3-pointer with 3:38 to go started an eight-point run that put Louisville up 73-65 inside the two-minute mark.
Stanford fought back again, tying it up 73-73 with 32.5 seconds to go on Okpara’s 3-point play, setting the stage for the dramatic finish.
