The University of Louisville men’s basketball team advanced to the team’s second straight Sweet 16 appearance after defeating Siena 79-72 in University of Dayton Arena Sunday. But it wasn’t easy.

After leading by as many as 14 in the first half, the Cards saw their lead evaporate into a four point deficit. With 11:45 left to play in the second half, down eight, Siena went on a 12-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 63-59 lead. During that run, Louisville turned the ball over six times, including four in a row, which resulted in just one shot attempt.

U of L head coach Rick Pitino called three timeouts during the run attempting to calm his players down and get his top seeded squad refocused. He then challenged them to turn up their energy defensively.

“You’ve got to prove to yourselves now you’re a great basketball team,” he told his rattled players.

With the momentum clearly on the side of the Saints and just over seven minutes left, this one had all the makings of the ferst earth shaking Cinderella upset of this year’s tournament. It was over the course of those last seven minutes in whcih these Cards finally preved to their coach that they were indeed some thing special.

“We thought we had them,” said Siena senior guard Kenny Hasbrouk, who had 11 points. “We were running them up and dwon. We kept up with them every time.”

Cards’ senior Terrence Williams was up for the test. Williams jump started the Cards on offense with a put back after an offensive rebound and then sank a three point basket a couple of trips down later to put his team up for good. He would score nine of his game high 24 points in the last seven minutes of play as the Cards closed out Siena with 20-9 run to advance to the next round.

“When people asked me how good they were, I couldn’t answer it honestly,” Pitino said after the game. “When we were down four and we had to make big plays offensvely and we had to make big rebounds defensively, not until that point did I ever believe that this team had it.”

Williams finished with 15 rebounds, one shy of his career high, to go along with his four assists and two steals making it just another day at the office for the most versitle player in all of college basketball. He also displayed a continued improvement with his jump shot connecting on nine of his 14 attempts from the field and was 4-6 from three.

“He definiely stepped up,” said Earl Clark, who added 12 points and 12 rebounds. “I expect that from him. He’s our leader and he’s a great player, one of the best forwards in the country.”

Though they managed to force Siena into nine turnovers for the entire game, compared to their own 17, the Cards showed tremendous grit when faced with adversity which might not have ended so well earlier in the season according to Wiliams.

“In the beginning of the year, we would have lost that game, no question,” Williams said. “We were in that same situation at Notre Dame–and instead of reversing it and taking the lead, we went down from 10 to 20 to 30.”

U of L (30-5) will now move on to face No. 12 seeded Arizon (21-13) in Indianapolis on Friday at 7 o’clock eastern.