BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — One team came out hot and stayed that way. The other didn’t. The scoreboard reading “Louisville 78, Oklahoma 48” pretty much identified which was which.

The Sooners’ season came to an abrupt and ugly end in the second round of the NCAA Tournament’s East Regional at BJCC Arena.

“That pretty much summed it up,” OU’s Blake Griffin said about an afternoon when the Sooners could do little right and the Cardinals could do little wrong. “Louisville is a good team and they had a really good day. I think it was combination of both. Today wasn’t our day at all.”

Louisville, which advanced to the Sweet 16 and a meeting with No. 2 seed Tennessee in the East Regional semifinals Thursday, was too big, too athletic and too deep for the Sooners to handle.

Earl Clark led the Cardinals with 14 points and Jerry Smith added 12. It wasn’t one particular player who did the Sooners in. It was what seemed like an endless rotation of pressure.

Seven Cardinals scored seven points or more.

OU knew what to expect. The Cardinals’ full-court pressure was no guarded secret. But the Sooners didn’t get a full grasp of what was coming until the game tipped off.

“When you get out there and that pressure hits you, and that speed and that athleticism and the length that Louisville constantly throws as you, it becomes more difficult to do what you know you’re supposed to do,” OU coach Jeff Capel said.

The Sooners handled it well enough for about 10 minutes.

David Godbold hit his first three 3-point attempts and Tony Crocker added a fourth with 12:30 left and the Sooners only trailed 14-12.

But the Cardinals (26-8) exploded for a 24-8 run to close the first half. Will Scott hit a lunging 3-pointer at the first half buzzer to Louisville up 44-22 at the break.

If OU hadn’t figured out by then it wasn’t going to be its day, just about everyone else in the arena had.

With 4:15 left in the first half, Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl got up and left his courtside seat. He knew which team he would be studying for Thursday’s East Regional semifinal.

“It was our best performance this year,” Louisville forward Terrence Williams said.

Hard to debate his assessment.