Louisville edges ODU in Battle 4 Atlantis

• Louisville plays Wichita State at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals
• Louisville-Wichita State will be on ESPN

NASSAU, Bahamas - It wasn't pretty by any stretch. Not by a long, long shot. But Louisville outlasted Old Dominion, 68-62, in an overtime slugfest of a Battle 4 Atlantis opener Wednesday night.

Donovan Mitchell tallied 15 points, seven rebounds and seven steals after a miserable 1-for-12 shooting start to the game. He made two late 3-pointers and a jump shot, and he had an assist to Mangok Mathiang for a layup, to help Louisville come back from a four-point deficit late in the second half. Then he scored seven overtime points to help seal the win.

Quentin Snider had a team-high 18 points and four assists for Louisville, which shot a dismal 29.7 percent from the field and scored just 20 points in the paint.

"When you don't play your best basketball, you can make excuses and say, 'We didn't do this, we didn't do that,' but you've got to give the other team credit," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said. "When you don't play good basketball, it's the other team that makes you not play well. ... Our inexperience showed of not running our offense."

Game Rewind: U of L survives ODU test

Pitino said things changed in the second half, when Louisville (4-0) started moving the ball more. The Cards were 2 for 4 from the field in overtime and made 14 of 18 from the free-throw line.

"I'm really proud of our guys because we needed a game like this," Pitino said. "In this tournament, you're going to be in wars like this."

Louisville doesn't have much time to rest and recuperate after Wednesday's slog that ended past midnight. The 10th-ranked Cards will play Wichita State (5-0) at 2:30 p.m. Thursday here at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island outside Nassau.

Pitino wasn't thrilled about his team's tournament schedule, saying Wichita State, which won the first game of the tournament on Wednesday, had "26 hours" to prepare for Louisville.

"We realize we have a major disadvantage (Thursday)," Pitino said. "We won't have any preparation time at all. They're a great team with a great defensive philosophy."