The Louisville native notched his 1,000th point in the win at Notre Dame. Jeff Greer/Louisville Courier Journal
NOTRE DAME, Indiana — Right before Louisville and Notre Dame tipped off to start a second overtime, David Padgett looked down at Mike Brey and flashed five fingers.
"Are we going five?" Padgett said, jokingly referencing Louisville's 2013 instant classic of a loss to the Irish.
Not quite Tuesday night. It was just two overtimes. But Louisville snapped its six-game losing streak at Notre Dame, topping Brey's Fighting Irish, 82-78, in what Padgett called another display of his team's resilience.
It was the second time in a week that Louisville snapped a streak after ending Florida State's 28-game home-winning run last Wednesday. And it was the third time in a row that Louisville, now 14-4 overall and 4-1 in the ACC, looked like a completely different team than the one from just a few weeks ago.
"Our preparation has become a lot better," said junior forward Ray Spalding, who totaled 23 points and 12 rebounds at Notre Dame. "We're a lot more locked in when it comes to preparing for teams."
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There are still flaws, things to fine-tune. Notre Dame, for example, dominated Louisville on the glass, out-rebounding the Cards 26-24 on Louisville's defensive end. That led to 21 second-chance points, and it prompted an exasperated Padgett to pace the sidelines in frustration on multiple occasions.
The Cards also, once again, endured a few scoring droughts on offense, including one that helped Notre Dame build a 10-point first-half lead.
What Padgett likes about this group, though, is that it is now doing the little things to overcome those faults.
Both FSU and Notre Dame dominated the backboards, and Virginia Tech made 17 layups. Yet Louisville held the trio to 32.1 percent from 3-point range and forced turnovers on 22.5 percent of their possessions.
"We're playing together," junior Deng Adel said. "We're listening to coach. We're defending really well. And everybody's contributing."
That was what made Louisville so tough to beat last season, when the Cards won 24 regular-season games and earned a double bye in the ACC Tournament and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
While Adel, Donovan Mitchell and Quentin Snider stepped up in many key moments, nearly everyone else on the roster did at some point, too.
In the past three games, Ryan McMahon, Dwayne Sutton, Malik Williams, Darius Perry and Jordan Nwora have each come up with important plays in big moments.
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Nwora, who hadn't played in the previous three games, got Louisville back in the game in the first half, Padgett said. The freshman forward helped fuel Louisville's 14-2 run to end the half.
Same goes for Perry, who hassled and harried Notre Dame guard Matt Farrell for 14 minutes, playing a large role in Farrell making just 8 of 25 from the field.
"It's just coming in and playing hard," Nwora said. "We were able to do that earlier in the year, when we'd go in. ... It looks good for us when we can come in and swing some momentum and get the game in our favor."
Momentum was the word of the night in Louisville's locker room. Snider, who had 22 points and seven assists at Notre Dame, said the three-game winning streak has the Cards playing with swagger.
In his postgame press conference, Padgett agreed, citing the Florida State game as the catalyst for Louisville's turnaround after a blowout loss at Kentucky and a frustrating overtime defeat at Clemson.
"I think just getting over that initial hump with the Florida State win was big," Padgett said. "It gave us the confidence to know we could win a game like that."
Just two weeks ago, it was fair to question if Louisville would even reach the NCAA Tournament, based on the team's weak nonconference resume.
Louisville sits alone in second place in the very early ACC standings, and it has three solid wins. What's even more important is how Louisville is playing.
Something clicked after the loss at Clemson. And the Cards look a lot different now.
Jeff Greer: 502-582-4044; [email protected]; Twitter: @JeffGreer_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jeffg.