The Louisville Cardinals improved to 7-1 and 2-0 in the ACC with a 76-64 win over Boston College on Saturday. Boston College fell to 2-7 overall and 0-3 in conference play. Louisville has now won three straight games since losing at Wisconsin, including two ACC road games.
David Johnson led Louisville with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Carlik Jones had 15 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists for the Cards. Samuell Williamson added 12 points and 3 rebounds.
Highlights from the Cards 76-64 victory over Boston College.#GoCards pic.twitter.com/tppJs5IODX
— Louisville Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) January 2, 2021
(Pressers will be added shortly)
For Boston College, Jay Heath led the way with 20 points and 3 assists. Wynston Tabbs scored 15 points with 3 rebounds. Makai Ashton-Langford added 13 points.
Boston College raced out to a 10-3 lead before the first media timeout before Louisville outscored them by 14 in the next two segments to take a 7 point lead at the under-8 timeout. The Cards scored the final 8 points of the half to take a 37-24 lead.
After the break, both teams traded buckets throughout most of the half. BC cut it to 7 points right before the 10:00 minute mark but would not get any closer than that. Louisville led by as many as 17 points on its way to a 76-64 win on the road.
Aside from the first four minutes of this game, Louisville was in control for the majority of the way. David Johnson took over in the first half, scoring 14 points on 4 made three-pointers. Johnson is now 14-31 from long range on the season after making just 5 total threes a year ago. Carlik Jones continues to fill up the stat sheet every night. Louisville’s backcourt has arguably been the best in the ACC and among the best in the entire nation.
Defensively, this might be the best overall performance we have seen from this Louisville team. Boston College shot 33.3 percent from the field and made only 8 of 33 three-point attempts. BC clearly struggled with the Cards’ length on the perimeter and really could not get anything going offensively all game. Boston College did not even score its 50th point until there was 2:35 left on the clock in regulation. They went on to quickly score 14 points after that in garbage time.
Louisville did exactly what it needed to do today against a bottom feeder in the ACC. I had hoped that the frontcourt would take advantage of a smaller Boston College squad, but they were unable to really produce offensively. We are still at least a month away from seeing Malik Williams back, so Louisville is probably going to need more from its frontcourt against better teams in the future. That being said, they have done well defensively and that will be good enough on most nights when Jones and Johnson are cooking.
Louisville looked better on Saturday than they did in any of the previous 3 games since the COVID break. We are still a couple weeks away from seeing the Cards up against a true contender in the ACC, but they are taking care of business right now. It’s the first week of January and Louisville is 7-1. As long as they keep winning, rankings and attention will come along with it.
Up Next:
Louisville is back in action on Wednesday for its home conference opener against Virginia Tech at 6:30 p.m. ET.
PRESS CONFERENCES
Head Coach Chris Mack
Dre Davis
Quinn Slazinski
