If you say you called Louisville winning in a blowout tonight, you’d be correct. If you said Louisville would beat Pittsburgh on the road by 55 points, you’d be lying.
No one could have foreseen tonight’s outcome. Louisville has had their way with Pittsburgh for the 10th time in a row after tonight’s win. But tonight, the Cardinals beat Pittsburgh in a way they had NEVER done before. Without their starting point guard, Quentin Snider, Louisville put together its best team performance of the season, on the road against a solid Pittsburgh team. The Cards shot 58% from the field, 54.5% from 3-point range (12-22), assisted on 24 of the 39 made shots, allowed only 13 made field goals on 51 attempts, and most impressively outrebounded Pittsburgh 48-26 en route to a 106 to 51 thumping of Pittsburgh on their home court.
Louisville was led in scoring by Donovan Mitchell with 29 points on 9-13 from the field (6-8 from 3), Ryan McMahon had the hot hand off the bench with 15 points on 5-7 from 3, Anas Mahmoud added 14 on a perfect 7-7, and Deng Adel and Tony Hicks each scored 10 points both on 4-5 shooting. Jaylen Johnson was a beast on the boards with 11 rebounds, and Mangok pulled down 9 boards as well.
Disspell the talk of offensive struggles with this team. The Cards bounced back from a difficult loss on Saturday, turned around and put the beat down of the season on a Pittsburgh team that is good enough make the NCAA tournament. Louisville held the No. 1 and No. 2 scorers in the ACC to 9 and 12 points tonight, respectively. The Cards have work to do, Pittsburgh isn’t a world beater by any means but a 55-point win on the road in the ACC is an accomplishment regardless of opponent.
The Cards will most certainly build off this performance, and will look to do so at 1pm Sunday at home against NC State (who just beat Duke on the road last night).
Go Cards!
