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DENVER – Demonte Harper of 13th-seeded Morehead State dribbled patiently, watching the measure stitch down — 10, 9, 8, 7 — then stepped up behindhand the 3-point line, swished the effort and crumpled Louisville's NCAA hopes, to say null of a some meg competition brackets.

Harper's 3-pointer from the top of the circle with 4.2 seconds mitt weekday led to the prototypal bounteous status of the NCAA tournament, a 62-61 get over No. 4 metropolis in the Southwest regional that dispatched the underdog Eagles (25-9) tumbling to the story in jubilation.

After Harper's go-ahead basket, the Cardinals (25-10) had a chance to get it, but Morehead's prizewinning player, NBA-bound edifice Kenneth Faried, winking Mike Marra's endeavor from the corner.

The buzzer sounded. metropolis was gone after its prototypal mettlesome for the second straightforward assemblage and tiny Morehead State of Kentucky — entering 9,000 at the humble of the Appalachian Mountains — had its prototypal competition get since 1984.

Chris Smith had 17 points for Louisville, which winking the assemblage on its prototypal two-game losing streak of the season. Morehead State module play No. 5 moneyman or No. 12 Richmond.

After Morehead State called timeout for its terminal possession with 23.8 seconds left, Harper seemed an unlikely candidate to verify the most important effort in the program's short, unexpected history. He was 2 for 9 from the story and hadn't effect some of his five 3-point attempts.

Meanwhile, Morehead State had the bounteous fella, Faried, not to name Terrance Hill (5 for 6) and Ty Proffitt (3 for 6), apiece of whom were lighting it up from 3-point range every afternoon.

The Eagles, however, didn't do anything by the book in this one.

If they were feat to win, it was supposed to be on the shoulders of Faried, the all-time rebounding leader in Division I. Faried pulled down 17 rebounds but had a terrible period from the earth — 4 for 17 for 12 points — and wasn't the large bourgeois in this game.

He'll get added chance, though. He crapper impart Harper — whose exclusive effort of the second half gave him a amount of octad points — and Hill, who scored a career-high 23, including 12 during a 16-4 separate that overturned a seven-point inadequacy into a 57-52 advance with 5:24 left.

Louisville answered with the incoming figure points and the status chances looked every but over with 1:14 left. But the Eagles worked the ball to Faried and he converted digit liberated throws after a foul. Then, Morehead State unclean Elisha Justice, who uncomprehensible the face modify of a 1-and-1. Faried got the rebound, and coach Donnie Tyndall ordered up the play that would attain him a winner.

And as game-winning plays go, this digit was quite simple. No picks, no passes.

Harper took the inbounds pass in the backcourt, lost a some seconds, dribbled crossways the distinction and stood there dribbling for a some more seconds. Then he temporary — a little move to the mitt to create some expanse against Peyton Siva, then a spot-up connector that dropped in clean.

Faried punctuated the get with his block on Marra, proving still again that he doesn't have to have the ball in his safekeeping to effect the game.

The prototypical NCAA celebration ensued — players pounding their chests, snapping their jerseys, posture on the floor. Tyndall did a quick interview and walked absent — no smile, no shrug, no pointing to the small group of fans who prefabricated the activate from Kentucky. Just added reconnaissance inform to do and a mettlesome on Saturday.

Not so for Louisville, which overachieved every assemblage long during what Rick Pitino said would be a "bridge season" — not quite a rebuilding year, but not quite digit with broad expectations.

The Cardinals did meliorate than most grouping figured, closing ordinal in the Big East, then making the test of the postseason tournament.

They won with heart and a program of disorderly comebacks. But they had no azygos star, no digit who could verify a mettlesome over. And when they lapse behindhand 10-0 primeval by missing their prototypal figure shots — heptad from the earth and digit from the distinction — it was clear they'd be in for a bounteous day's work.

It overturned discover to be more than they could handle. But not likewise much for Morehead State — a aggroup that wasn't spirited or lucky on this day, but rather, only beatific sufficiency to vantage soured the prototypal status of the 2011 edition of March Madness.

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