LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Ohio held a six-point lead with less than four minutes remaining, but No. 7 Louisville rallied for a 59-54 victory at the KFC YUM! Center on Friday night.

D.J. Cooper’s three-point play capped off a 9-0 Ohio run that put it on top 49-43 with 3:55 remaining, but Louisville (5-0) closed out the game by scoring 16 of the final 21 points.

T.J. Hall and Cooper both missed potential game-tying trey attempts in the final 10 seconds.

Cooper finished with 16 points but was just 6 of 17 and had only three assists with three turnovers. Reggie Keely tallied 11 points and six boards, while Stevie Taylor reached double figures with 10 points.

Gorgui Dieng was a force with 16 rebounds to go with 10 points, while Kyle Kuric scores 16 points and added five rebounds and four steals. Chane Behannan finished with 11 points and seven boards.

Kuric gave the Cardinals three second-chance points after making from beyond the arc after an initial miss by Peyton Siva, bringing his team to within three in the final minutes.

Keely hit a jumper to push the Bobcats' lead to five, but Chris Smith hit two free throws and after a missed Cooper 3-pointer, Kuric connected from deep to tie the game at 51 with 2:20 remaining.

Turnovers on the Bobcats’ next two possessions allowed the Cardinals to go up by four. Smith scored a layup and Behanan threw down a dunk for a four-point Louisville lead with one minute to go.

Cooper gave Ohio (3-1) the answer it needed with a trey, and Siva hit a pair of shots from the foul line with 20 seconds remaining to make it a three-point game. Ivo Baltic’s offensive rebound of Hall’s missed triple gave the Bobcats a second look, but Cooper was off the mark, and Behanan closed out the game with a couple of free throws.

Aside from a 9-5 Louisville lead early, neither team led by more than three in the first half until a 10-0 run in the final minutes.

Down 21-18, the Cardinals got a Dieng layup, two Smith free throws, a Kuric triple and free throw and another Dieng layup to go on top 28-21. Hall closed out the scoring in the half with a layup that made it 28-23 at the break.

Cooper scored the first five points of the second half to tie the game at 28, but the Cardinals had another outburst, scoring nine straight points after the game was tied at 32. Dieng’s dunk after a Kuric steal was the culmination of the run that forced a timeout with 9:23 remaining.

From there, Ohio scored eight in a row to make it tight again. Keely had a steal and layup, Hall hit a 3-pointer and Walter Offutt made good on a free throw and then a layup to cut the Bobcats’ deficit to 41-40 with still 6:23 showing on the clock.

Neither team shot well in the game, with Ohio finishing 21 of 55 (38.2 percent) and Louisville connecting on just 20 of 54 (37.0 percent) attempts. The Cardinals got to the line far more often, though, going 14 of 22, compared to just 4 of 8 by the Bobcats.

Both teams crashed the offensive boards, with Louisville totaling 21, including 10 by Dieng. The Cardinals made more of their extra opportunities, holding a 22-6 advantage in second-chance points. Ohio had more turnovers, 14-12.

Offutt, who had been one of Ohio’s top scoring threats, was held to just seven points, but did tie for the team lead with six rebounds. Baltic continued his early-season struggles with just two points and five rebounds while playing only 14 minutes.

The Bobcats are on the road again with a 7 p.m. game Wednesday at Marshall.