The Louisville Cardinals went on the road and beat the Miami Hurricanes 87-74 on Tuesday night to get to 1-0 overall and in ACC play. Louisville led 45-26 at halftime and had a 32 point lead midway through the second half.
Jordan Nwora led all scorers with 23 points along with 12 rebounds. Steven Enoch also had a double-double, scoring 10 points with 12 boards. Dwayne Sutton and Ryan McMahon each scored 16 points. Off the bench, Samuell Williamson had 13 points and 5 rebounds.
For Miami, Chris Lykes led the way with 18 points and 5 assists. Dejan Vasiljevic added 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Highlights from the Cards 87-74 season opening victory over Miami.#GoCards pic.twitter.com/vOBzNDMs4D
— Louisville Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) November 6, 2019
This was a pretty comfortable win for Louisville to start the season. The started out slow but went on a big run late in the first half and took control from there. Defensively, the Cards fell asleep in the second half and gave up 48 points. They led by 32 almost midway through the half yet only ended up winning by 13.
One big takeaway from this game has to be the play of Samuell Williamson. He primarily did his damage in the first half, but he looked like someone who is going to force his way into the starting lineup sooner than later. Fresh Kimble was the only bench player to score points for Louisville besides Williamson, though. It was an impressive win, but they’re going to need more from the bench as the season goes on.
There’s not a whole lot that can be taken from this game. Louisville is a preseason top 5 team; they went out and took care of business like you would expect them to. You’d like to see them play better with the lead, but the game was essentially over at halftime. We will have to wait a few more weeks before we really see this team tested.
Up Next: Louisville heads home for a weekend matchup with Youngstown State Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EST.
