Louisville Holds Off Wake Forest in Winston-Salem

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - It wasn't easy, but make that three-in-a-row for the Louisville men's basketball program.

Hitting the road for a matchup at Wake Forest, the Cardinals were able to hold on for dear life against the Demon Deacons, holding them off long enough to leave the Joel Coliseum with a 88-80 victory on Saturday.

The No. 24 Cardinals (17-6, 7-4 ACC) led by double figures early in the second half, but saw that advantage slowly dwindle as the period went on, to the point where it was a tie game with the Demon Deacons (11-12, 2-8 ACC) with under five minutes.

However, Louisville got lockdown defense when they absolutely needed it the most. Wake Forest missed their final 11 shots of the night, allowing the Cards to generate enough offense to escape with the win.

Not only does Louisville get to over .500 in games played away from the KFC Yum! Center at 5-4, they win three consecutive games for the first time since opening up the season at 7-0. Meanwhile, Wake Forest has now lost five-in-a-row, and nine of their last 11 to fall under .500 overall.

Offensively, Louisville put together one of their more complete performances of the season. Their 52.9 field goal percentage was the fourth-highest of the season, compiling 30 points in the paint with a 10-of-25 showing on three-point attempts. They also made their trips to the free throw line count, going 24-of-31 at the charity stripe.

Despite the lockdown defense to end the game, the Cardinals were somewhat shaky on that end of the floor. The Demon Deacons were still able to shoot 42.9 percent for the game (50.9 percent prior to the 11 straight misses), and locked even with UofL in rebounding at 32 a piece,

A whopping six Cardinals cracked double figures scoring, led by Sananda Fru, whose 17 points and six rebounds both led the team. J'Vonne Hadley finished with 15 points, Khani Rooths came off the bench for 13, Mikel Brown had 12 with eight assists, and both Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely added 11. Juke Harris led Wake Forest with 25 points.

Unlike the last few games, Louisville finally did not get off to a slow start in their road tilt at Wake Forest. The Cardinals started the game 6-of-12, while holding the Demon Deacons to a 2-of-9 start, pulling ahead 15-6 in the first seven minutes. In fact Wake burned a timeout just 49 seconds in after Hadley scored five quick points.

Despite this fast start, Wake Forest still hung around throughout the rest of the second half, thanks mainly to some shaky defense from Louisville. After that cold shooting start, the Deacs made 10 of their final 15 shot attempts in the period.

It's why, despite shooting 16-of-30 for the half overall and at one point making eight straight baskets, the Cards took just a 43-34 lead into to half.

Early in the second half, it looked like Louisville might cruise to a win. Wake Forest was held to just one of their first seven shots of the half, falling behind by 15 just over four minutes after the two teams returned to action.

However, the Cards' defense regressed big time through the middle portion of the second half. After that cold open, the Deacs then had a stretch where they shot 14-of-21, which allowed them to tie the game up heading into the final segment.

Fortunately, not only did their defense finally wake up, Louisville was just good enough offensively to make sure that they could actually pull ahead. They were 11-of-21 from the floor after halftime, although they were 1-of-5 with three turnovers in the final nine minutes. It helps that they were also 19-of-22 on free throws in this half, compared to 12-of-15 by Wake.

Next up, Louisville will return home, taking on NC State on a short turnaround. Tip-off against the Wolfpack is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 9 at 7:00 p.m. EST.

More Cardinals Stories