South Florida guard Josh Omojafo (8) collides with Louisville guard Isaac McKneely (10) during the first half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament on Thursday in Buffalo. AP Photo

BUFFALO — Isaac McKneely scored 23 points, and Louisville hung on to beat South Florida 83-79 on Thursday to win its first NCAA Tournament game since Rick Pitino’s final season as coach.

Ryan Conwell scored 11 of his 18 points in the second half and backup forward Sananda Fru had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Cardinals.

Louisville (24-10) showed signs of struggling without starting point guard Mikel Brown Jr., who missed his fifth straight game with back issues. It was evident in the Cardinals’ issues against South Florida’s press in nearly squandering a 23-point lead over the final 12:50.

“It was the longest 10 minutes of my life, there’s no question about it,” Cardinals coach Pat Kelsey said. “We haven’t played against a team like that, that has pressed us like that. So it was a heck of a test on a really, really big stage.”

Brown is not expected to return for the second round on Saturday. That’s when the East Region’s sixth seed Louisville plays third-seeded Michigan State (26-7), a 92-67 first-round winner over North Dakota State.

Louisville had lost three straight tournament games since an 89-75 first-round win over Jacksonville State in 2017.

Joseph Pinion scored 27 points for South Florida (25-9) in a game in which the Bulls missed 20 of their first 21 3-point attempts. The AAC-champion Bulls had an 11-game winning streak snapped, and were making just their fourth tournament appearance, and first since reaching the Sweet 16 in 2012.

“Obviously we put ourselves in a hole, but I thought we battled back really hard on that run,” said Pinion, who went 8 of 17 in the second half after opening 2 for 8. “I definitely thought we were going to win the ballgame, but we came up short.”

No more staples for McKneely

McKneely hit 7 of 10 3-point attempts, and credited the performance for being a little, well, lightheaded.

“It’s because I got my staples out yesterday,” the senior guard said, before adding, “no, I’m kidding.”

McKneely wasn’t kidding about the staples being removed. He had four placed in his head after taking an errant elbow from a teammate in a 78-73 loss to Miami in the ACC quarterfinals last week.

No second-guessing the 3

South Florida coach Bryan Hodgson wasn’t going to lament his offense’s first-half struggles.

“I know the critics will say we took too many 3s. I think we missed some really good ones. Did we take some bad ones? Sure,” he said. “But we’ve had our identity offensively all year. It’s been very successful, most efficient offense in the history of the program.”

The Bulls entered the game with the nation’s eighth-best offense in averaging 87.7 points per outing, and topped 100 points six times, including a program record in a 109-88 win over UTSA in February.

Facing the press

Kelsey refused to blame the Cardinals’ issues against the press for not having Brown available. He instead credited his backups who stepped up.

“Injuries happen in basketball,” Kelsey said in crediting McKneely and backup guard Kobe Rodgers. “I’m really, really proud amidst the adversity that we have a bunch of guys that had the resolve and the wherewithal and the toughness to figure out a way to advance in this tournament.”

What’s worrisome is the Cardinals committing a season-high 22 turnovers. Their previous high was 18 in an 87-70 win over Georgia Tech on Feb. 21.