Kenny Payne told his Louisville men's basketball players they were going to get Virginia's "best game" Wednesday night, one that would test the Cardinals' biggest areas of concern coming off a 12-day hiatus.

It was clear by halftime at John Paul Jones Arena that this would be a test they could not pass.

Playing undermanned in a city where it hasn't won since 1990, U of L (5-8, 0-2 ACC) suffered its 23rd double-digit loss of Payne's tenure and its 22nd consecutive on the road, 77-53. It was also the 10th loss of 20 points or more across the second-year head coach's 45 games at the helm — and the most lopsided since a 34-point beatdown at Pittsburgh on Feb. 7, 2023.

"If we're going to beat good teams," Payne told Bob Valvano during a postgame interview on the Cardinal Sports Network, "we're all going to have to play A+ games."

This was not one of those games.

UVA (11-3, 2-1) went on a 13-4 run over the final 5:02 of the first half to take a 37-22 lead, its largest of the night to that point, into the break. The closest the Cards got from there was 11, trailing 37-26 with 17:30 to play in the second half, only to allow the deficit to grow to 18 over the next six minutes and change.

They were without four players. Sophomores Tre White (groin) and Emmanuel Okorafor (ankle) joined freshman Dennis Evans (shoulder) and senior JJ Traynor (shoulder) on the injury report. But they looked sharp during the opening minutes, whipping the ball around the court against the Cavaliers' pack-line defense.

Ty-Laur Johnson found Brandon Huntley-Hatfield for a layup 20 seconds into the game; then Danilo Jovanovich, making his first collegiate start, dished to Skyy Clark for a 3-pointer on the next possession. Defensively, they held Virginia to 6-for-14 shooting during the first 10 minutes. And when the Cavs jumped to a 24-14 lead at the 6:57 mark, they fought back to keep within single digits thanks to a couple of tough baskets from Mike James.

Then, the wheels fell off.

UVA scored nine unanswered points — a jumper in the paint, a layup, a 3 and a fast-break alley-oop — and added to its lead with a buzzer-beating shot from Isaac McKneely. It had three stretches of making four consecutive field goals; while Louisville made only six between the 2:41 mark of the first half and the 9:54 mark of the second.

"We lost our discipline; we lost our focus; and (we) lost our fight," Payne said during his postgame news conference. "Some of that's on us as coaches; some of that's on me; and some of that is on the players. We all are to blame because we know how good these teams are in this conference."

Payne on Tuesday told reporters he had been stressing to his team the importance of ball movement and shot selection. Too often during U of L's underwhelmingly inconsistent start to the 2023-24 season, he said, did one player "try to take over" segments of games, leading to bad looks and unforced turnovers.

The opposite happened Wednesday, but the results were the same.

On a night when U of L could have used a fourth consecutive double-double and then some from Huntley-Hatfield, the junior big man scored only nine points on 3-for-6 shooting, grabbed five rebounds and finished -13 across 33 minutes. And with UVA's defense creating an umbrella around the paint, he and his teammates took 25 of their 47 shots from 3-point range.

Only six went in. And that was against a team that allowed Notre Dame to go 11 for 23 from beyond the arc during a 22-point loss on Dec. 30.

Payne said afterward, "You don't want to settle for jump shots against (Virginia). They're too good and too disciplined defensively."

"I want (us) to be a team that attacks," he added, "and we knew it wasn't going to come off, 'One pass and attack.' We knew that we had to have multiple drives. We knew that we had to move the ball and play north (to) south; and we sort of caught the ball and dribbled in a spot and then decided to go where their pack-line defense was."

The Cavs, on the other hand, shot 51.7% from the field, with assists on 20 of its 30 baskets, and won the battle of the boards, 34-27. McKneely led all scorers with 18 points; he was one of four opposing players to break double digits.

Curtis Williams led the Cards in scoring with 14 points, all of which came during the second half, on 5-for-12 shooting (4 for 10 from 3). James added 11 on 4-for-10 shooting

Louisville returns to the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday for a noon tipoff against Pittsburgh, which is also looking for its first ACC win after dropping games against No. 16 Clemson, Syracuse and, most recently, No. 9 North Carolina.

Coach Jeff Capel and the Panthers do not, however, need a win as badly as U of L does.

In an interview with WDRB News' Eric Crawford the day after the Cards fell to archrival Kentucky in blowout fashion, athletics director Josh Heird did not guarantee Payne, who fell to 9-36 overall Wednesday, would coach his alma mater for the remainder of the season — only going as far as saying he was keeping his job "as we move into the new year."

The time is now, as Heird told Crawford, for Payne to make some "deposits." He did not Wednesday night.

Instead, it felt more like a rerun — down to a refrain the coach repeated yet again during his interview with Valvano.

"I got to do a better job," he said, "of explaining what winning basketball is."

Reach Louisville men's basketball reporter Brooks Holton at bholton@gannett.com and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville basketball: Kenny Payne drops 22nd consecutive game on road