The Louisville Cardinals defeated the Purdue Boilermakers 71-64 last night and helped the ACC win the ACC/Big 10 challenge outright for the first time since 2008. Purdue’s only lead of the game was by the score of 4-3, after that the Cardinals took control and aside from a late run (helped by some very suspect officiating), never looked back.
It was a very balanced effort offensively for Louisville, Mangok Mathiang and Ray Spalding led the way with 11 points (yes, you read that correctly). Anas Mahmoud, Deng Adel and Quentin Snider each had 9 points; while Donovan Mitchell added 8. Ryan McMahon added an excellent and very appropriately timed 6 points on 2 designed inbounds plays (still shocked Purdue didn’t see the second one coming) on which he knocked down 2 big 3 pointers when the offense was in a rut.
A much-needed, and overall impressive bounce back performance after the debacle of a second half against Baylor. There are still many things to work on, but the Cards notched a top-15 win against a quality opponent which will surely help come March. Now it’s December and we all know things are going to heat up while the temperatures cool down, the win last night was exactly the confidence boost this team needed. This season is going to be fun.
Go Cards!
