Louisville, KY – The UMBC men's basketball team gave the host Louisville Cardinals all they could handle but came up just short as they fell, 94-93, in the season-opener for both squads at the KFC Yum Center on Monday night.
 
Sophomore guard Dion Brown (career high 28 points) and junior guard Bryce Johnson (21 points) combined for 49 points while graduate student forward Khydarius Smith added 13 points off the bench. Graduate student Max Lorca-Lloyd added seven boards and a game-high three rejections.

"A loss is a loss, but I saw a lot of positive things from my teammates tonight," said Brown. "We have the ability to play with an ACC team and we are a group that fights. We fought to the very last play. There are a lot of things we could have done better but I think the results are going to be different as the season goes on."

UMBC led by as many as 13 points, 46-33, with 2:42 remaining in the opening half after freshman guard Franck Emmou's (8 points) transition trifecta.
 
The Cardinals ended the opening stanza on a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 48-40 at the break and took their first lead of the second half at 51-50 with 17:16 left in the contest.
 
The Retrievers fought right back and went on an 8-1 spurt to take a 58-52 advantage at the 14:31 mark. Brown scored the first five points and junior guard Devan Sapp (9 points, 3 steals) capped the stretch with a transition triple after coming up with a steal.
 
UMBC extended their lead to 72-64 after Johnson converted one of two free throws with 9:22 left.
 
The Cardinals responded with eight straight points to even the contest at 75 apiece at the 6:44 mark on a driving layup by sophomore Mike James.
 
UMBC still led 80-76 after Johnson drilled his third trifecta of the night with 5:23 remaining but the hosts would even the contest at 81 after a dunk by Skyy Clark with 4:08 left.
 
The game went back-and-forth until Louisville broke an 86-86 deadlock by reeling off five consecutive points, establishing a 91-86 edge with 1:28 left.
 
The Retrievers, however, refused to go away as Brown hit a free throw and then converted a conventional three-point play off a turnover to cut Louisville's lead to just 91-90 with forty-two ticks left.
 
Clark then made one of two at the line to spot the hosts to a 92-90 advantage, but Brown tied the game as he drove right down the lane for a layup with 18 seconds left.
 
It looked as though UMBC would have the final opportunity after Tre White missed a layup with 11 ticks left but he was able to grab the rebound while falling out of bounds and found JJ Traynor for a dunk with seven seconds left.
 
The Retrievers had a chance to tie the game after Smith was fouled with two seconds remaining. Smith connected on the first free throw but misfired on his second attempt and UMBC was unable to get another shot off despite coming up with the offensive rebound.
 
James finished with a double-double of 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinals. Traynor added 13 points.
 
UMBC made 35-of-69 field goal attempts (50.7 percent) and were 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from behind the arc. The Retrievers hurt themselves at the foul line by making just 12-of-22 attempts (54.5 percent).
 
Louisville, who outscored UMBC, 60-42 inside the paint, made half of their overall attempts (34-of-68) and were just 2-of-14 from 3 and 24-of-39 (61.5 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
The Cardinals outrebounded the Retrievers by a 47-35 margin and had 20 offensive rebounds which led to 28 second-chance points.
 
The Retrievers did not allow a single fast break point and had eight of their own.
 
UMBC will return home and host Marist on Saturday afternoon in their home opener.