Energy carries Louisville in second half against Wake Forest
Chris Mack wants his team to be more electric to start the game.
Louisville men’s basketball defeated Wake Forest 86-76 at the KFC Yum! Center Feb. 5 for its ninth straight win. The Cardinals (20-3 overall, 11-1 in the ACC) trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half before going on a 15-0 run early in the second half to take the lead for good.
Wake Forest led for the entirety of the first half, shooting 60 percent from the field to take a 12-point advantage into halftime. Mack said his team didn’t adjusted defensively in the second half, but played with more urgency.
“The message was simple, we have to do what we have talked about doing in the first half at a better rate,” Mack said. “We didn’t redesign a defense in the second half, we didn’t redesign what we were doing offensively.”
Louisville improved its ball pressure in the second half, limiting Wake Forest to 30 percent from the field and 2 of 11 on 3-point shots. After struggling to string together stops in the first half, Louisville held Wake Forest scoreless for more than four minutes during a 15-0 run.
Jordan Nwora, who finished with a game-high 21 points, capped the run with a 3-pointer to give Louisville a 55-51 lead with 14 minutes left in the second half. Dwayne Sutton started the run with a shot from behind the arc. The fifth-year senior finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
“We got some stops, we got some transition points, we were chipping away and we got the lead,” Sutton said.
The Cardinals outscored Wake Forest by 22 points in the second half. Energy helped Louisville clinch its 18 straight 20-win season.
“The energy definitely picked up the intensity, it felt like we were foaming at the mouth at the beginning of the second half to do whatever to get that win,” Kimble said. “That was big for us to reshape our whole imagery from the first half.”