Their best player was riding the bench with five fouls.
Their opponents were so hot from three-point range, they were banking baseline treys and pulling up from seven feet behind the arc.
And their top remaining swingman was cramping so badly, he constantly doubled over in pain as the game wore on.
A win didn't seem to be in the cards for the Cards, but Louisville and head coach Rick Pitino rallied over the second half to force the game's first tie with just seconds left in regulation.
They prevailed over scrappy West Virginia in overtime, 93-85.
Down by 10 with just more than five minutes left - and by as many as 20 in the first half - the Cardinals put together a stunning rally without top scorer Francisco Garcia, who fouled out with four minutes left and his team down by four.
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Cue Larry O'Bannon and a wincing Taquan Dean, who took the game over with some help from the sidelines.
"I looked at Coach, and he's been in that position before," Dean said. "He told us, 'Stay calm. We're still going to stay in this game.'"
O'Bannon scored six of Louisville's last eight points, including a driving layup that knotted the score at 77. He finished with a team-high 24 points, all coming in the second half and overtime.
West Virginia had the ball with a chance to win, but J.D. Collins' pull-up jumper was blocked, leading to a Louisville fast break as the final seconds ticked off the clock.
Dean pulled up for a potential game-winner at the buzzer, but missed badly.
"I definitely wanted to be more assertive," O'Bannon said of the game's closing stretch. "Taquan was cramping. I didn't know if his shot was coming up a little short. Francisco got in a little foul trouble. Just being the senior I am, I felt that I had to step up."
Dean said the cramping played a large part in his last-second brick.
"I thought I could make it, but my legs locked up," he said. "I tried to make it, but my legs wouldn't let me."
With the momentum theirs, the Cardinals cruised in overtime. The smoking Mountaineers cooled considerably after regulation.
"I wouldn't say we were worn out," West Virginia forward Kevin Pittsnogle said. "We just couldn't make the key plays when we had to make them, and they had a couple of bounces that went their way."
Pittsnogle was particularly lights-out for the Mountaineers, hitting six of the team's 18 three-pointers.
West Virginia came out shooting over, around and through the Cardinals' zone. They were ridiculous from outside, 10-for-14 in the first half and 18-for-27 in the game.
"I've never seen shooting like that in my life in the first half," Pitino said. "I've never seen such range. One shot was between halfcourt and the top of the key. Another one was banked from the wing. Their center made one falling out of bounds. I've never seen the likes of that."
The long-range bombs helped WVU build its big lead, but Louisville chipped away by switching to man-to-man defense and pressing the entire length of the court in the second half.
"I've never had to abandon a whole scouting report at halftime," Pitino said. "I felt like it had to be abandoned."
The switch paid off in remarkable fashion, and Pitino and his Cardinals are riding a serious wave of momentum to the Final Four in St. Louis.
