Louisville basketball: Cards flee Demons in comeback win over Wake

Louisville’s second half may have been their best half of basketball all season

It was a bit of jekyl and hyde with Louisville on Wednesday night as the Cardinals arguably played one of their worst half’s of basketball during the first half against Wake Forest. It was putrid, let me be plain and clear. And what made it worse was listening to Dan Dakich roast Louisville for their lack of hustle, lack of fundamentals, lack of offensive sets, and everything else that plagued them during Wake Forest’s big first half.

Sure, Wake Forest shot the ball incredibly well in the first half as they got five three’s combined from their starting guards while getting several other easy baskets due to Louisville’s disinterest in playing any sort of defense.

Coming into the game Wake Forest ranked168th in the country in total points per game at 71.6 ppg and was near the bottom of nearly every statistical category when it came to scoring in the ACC. They did have weapons, which we saw, but with just a bit better effort from Louisville on defense, it would’ve been a completely different half in my opinion.

Even with Wake Forest up by 16 at one point, it never felt like the game was out of reach for Louisville. We knew that the Cards were coming into the game on an incredible shooting streak, shooting 49 percent from three, and hitting nearly 50 percent of their shots from the field. Louisville was able to score in the latter parts of the half from both outside and inside, thanks to hot shooting from Jordan Nwora and Ryan McMahon and interior scoring from Enoch and Williams.

Louisville went into half time letting Wake Forest shot an incredible 60 percent from three, which was bound to regress to the mean at some point.

It did, but it took Louisville coming out with a different type of intensity than we’ve seen all season. They got out on a 20-5 run, including going on an 18-0 run in the second to push the game in their favor and ultimately putting it away with free-throw shooting and interior scoring.

The second half on both sides of the floor for Louisville was nothing short of a clinic. They showed the country just how dangerous they can be, and while it came against Wake Forest it doesn’t really matter. Louisville did it first with defense, and then with their shot selection and free throw shooting on the other end.

Mack trusted his guys as I noted above and they got it figured out. The Cards were led by Fresh Kimble in the second half who scored 13 of his 14 points, including two big three’s, and got much-improved play from Dwayne Sutton and Steven Enoch as well.

The Cards ended with two players scoring in double-digits in the second half alone, and two others on the verge of crossing that mark, on way to six players scoring in double-digits.

Louisville’s second-half performance, especially their effort, has to become the norm moving forward. With matchups looming against the likes of Virginia (2x), Florida State, and Syracuse, Louisville has to find ways to give everything they have for 40 minutes.