Noah Waterman’s driving layup with 1.2 seconds to play helped Louisville avoid what would have been a catastrophic loss to Eastern Kentucky Saturday afternoon inside the KFC Yum Center.

Trailing by one in the closing moments, U of L forced Colonels star Devontae Blanton into a missed jumper. Reyne Smith then took off up the left side of the floor, where he nearly lost the ball before finding Waterman, who nearly lost the ball as well. After regaining his footing, Waterman drove to the rim for a contested bucket that would give the Cardinals a 1-point lead.

A steal and a free-throw by Terrence Edwards would set the game’s score at its final margin.

The end-of-game sequence allowed the Cardinals to avoid what would have been a crippling defeat in game they were favored to win by 21.5 points. Instead, they’ll enter the New Year with an 8-5 record and only losses to quality opponents on their resume.

Still, the fact that Louisville couldn’t put away an EKU team that nearly knocked the Cardinals off for the first time since 1963 was more than a little unnerving.

After knocking down nine three-pointers in the first half, U of L could manage just two makes from deep in the second frame. The most important of those came from Smith, whose three with just under two minutes to play put the Cards ahead, 75-73. EKU’s George Kimble, who finished with a game-high 24 points, promptly answered with a three of his own to set up the game’s frantic final moments.

I don’t know if it was the holiday break or what, but the energy was down, the defense was downright bad, and the head-scratching unforced turnovers were back.

We are extremely fortunate that this wasn’t a Quad 4 loss that would have completely tanked our resume right before we begin our dive into the heart of conference play.

The most crucial two week stretch of the season — one which features games against North Carolina, Virginia, Pitt and Clemson — is now upon us. Handle it well, and we can dream March Madness dreams as we go deeper into January and February. Handle it the way we handled things today, and the season shifts to “keep fighting, see how many wins we can scrap together, and maybe we can pull off a crazy run in Charlotte” mode.