Indianapolis - Louisville looked more athletic, faster and basically like a Final Four team through much of Friday night.

The East Region's top-seed didn't feel like it.

"All of our guys are really sick," coach Rick Pitino said. "Everybody's coughing and hacking. The only problem is every timeout Russ (Smith) is hacking in our faces."

The Cardinals survived the colds and an upset-driven effort from No. 12-seed Oregon for a 77-69 NCAA tournament Sweet 16 victory Friday night behind a career-high tying 31 points from Smith.

"I'm terribly sick," Smith said. "I just kept coughing."

And he kept scoring.

"When I'm on the court I just see little spaces and I try to get there before the defender," said Smith, who hit 12 of 14 free throws and shot 9 of 16 from the floor.

Nothing kept Oregon from making a game out of what appeared to be a mismatch before No. 2 Duke faced No. 3 Michigan State in the evening's second game.

Despite a low seed perceived as a snub, the Ducks constantly threatened to make life difficult for Louisville.

With a 9-2 run, Oregon cut the Cardinals 16-point lead to 70-64 with 5 minutes, 16 seconds remaining.

But they only made two more field goals the rest of the game as the Cardinals asserted themselves.

Oregon appeared to be headed for a rough night after Louisville built a 16-point lead in the first half even with point guard Peyton Siva on the bench for all but five minutes.

"We dug too big of a hole," Oregon Dana Altman said. "I'm disappointed we didn't play a little bit better in that first half. They got off to a great start. It just set a bad tone. ... We were trying to recover from that all (game)."

Siva did not make his first field goal until 10:26 remained in the game and finished with four points.

Oregon did not struggle as mightily against Louisville's press at Lucas Oil Stadium as many suspected, including the Ducks.

They shot 44.3 percent and turned the ball over only 12 times, one fewer than the Cardinals.

"(Oregon coaches) came with a lot of new press breaks for us," said Ducks forward Arsalan Kazemi, who finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds. "We just practiced on it for three or four days. We were really comfortable with their press."

"Oregon's a great basketball team, one of the best we've played," Pitino said. "Our defense was porous at best and that's what has carried us."

Louisville center Gorgui Dieng scored 10 points with nine rebounds, while Kevin Ware came off the bench to score 11 points.