Louisville basketball: Jordan Nwora’s 32 points leads Cards to victory
Louisville basketball’s Jordan Nwora explodes for a career high 32 points as the Cards overcame a slow start and a late comeback effort to beat Boston College.
Coming off the best road win in years, Louisville basketball was looking to keep that momentum at home against what appeared to be an over matched Boston College team. With how crazy the ACC has been the first few of game of conference play you never know though.
The first minute looked like it might be two fast starts in a row after a couple of good defensive stops and a Cunningham three pointer. However, the next 12 or so minutes looked like the exact opposite of what we saw against North Carolina
The Cards had a tough time finding any offensive flow. They settled for bad shots and turned the ball over a lot with sloppy play. After a string of bad plays, Louisville found themselves down 12 points with 7:17 left in the first half.
Dwayne Sutton broke the seal with a 9-0 run himself. Jordan Nwora then got hot and erased the Boston College lead. Sutton and Nwora traded buckets down the stretch and ended the half with 12 and 18, respectively. The Cards went in to the tunnel with all the momentum and a 10 point lead.
In the second half, Louisville came out and expanded their lead. Fore hit a couple threes, Nwora had a nice drive and dunk, and Sutton was cleaning the glass. With just around 9 minutes left, Louisville led by 23 points.
Then the ugly stretch from the first half reared its head again. Here’s a tip to any future opponent who might be reading this post (it could happen) just press and trap. Louisville had no answer for Boston College’s pressure. When a full court press or a double team comes in the corner its like the Cards go straight to panic mode.
The pressure caused multiple turnovers and Louisville reverted back to settling for bad shots after dribbling the ball for most of the shot clock. Louisville fell apart on the defensive end too and BC went on a 16-0 to get within 5 points late in the game.
CC came through with a strong drive to the basket that was a foul and hit both his FTs to stop the bleeding. Nwora put the nail in the coffin with another three pointer to extend the lead to 8 points with less than a minute to go. Then danced on the grave with a late dunk to cap off a career night with 32 points and 10 rebounds. Sutton ended with his third straight double double and finished with 14 and 10.
It would have been nice to build off the big North Carolina win with a good old fashion blow out at home and it was heading way. You can’t let a team come back like that after leading by over 20. It is encouraging to see that Nwora and Sutton isn’t going to let this team go down without a fight.
MVP: Jordan Nwora. Some games we look to find someone else to give the MVP too but I can’t argue with a 32 points and a career high. He can flat out score. The last Cardinal to score 30 you wonder?….Wayne freaking Blackshear
LVP: Ryan McMahon. He didn’t play bad, he actually didn’t play much at all but he did get hurt. A BC player rolled up on his ankle and just kind of sat on it for a while. He looked to be in a lot of pain and couldn’t put much weight on it. We hope it is nothing serious and he’s back soon.
X-Factor: Dwayne Sutton. If it wasn’t for the Jordan’s career high, he would be my MVP. Sutton finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds to cap off his third double double in a row. He’s been a rock during conference play and the guy I think we can count on to give max effort every game.