Donovan Mitchell powers men's basketball past Wolfpack • The Louisville Cardinal

By Jordan Shim–

Louisville (18-4, 6-3 ACC) picked up their fifth consecutive home victory defeating NC State (14-8, 3-6 ACC) 85-60 Sunday.

The Wolfpack quickly took a 6-0 lead. Donovan Mitchell responded scoring the team’s first 11 points in three and half minutes. Louisville used an 11-2 rebound advantage to fuel a 15-0 run to take a 21-9 lead.

Mitchell carried the scoring load with 21 first-half points as Deng Adel struggled, going 0-for-6 from the field.

David Levitch had his first career start after Tony Hicks suffered a hand injury in the team’s win over Pittsburgh. Levitch didn’t fill the stat sheet, but coach Rick Pitino praised the senior’s performance.

“David Levitch has not let me down once since he’s been here,” Pitino said. “I think his hustle ignited the team. We didn’t miss a beat when he was on the floor.”

Mitchell cooled off late in the second half as Louisville cruised to the finish. Adel got it going with 10 second-half points and Mangok Mathiang scored 14.

Mitchell followed up his career-high 29 points against Pittsburgh with a fantasy stat line against NC State. He scored 28 points with six threes, grabbed eight rebounds and had five assists and two steals.

“We’re just getting better. Our goals out of this are to see dramatic change in something fundamental,” Pitino said. “Last week, we saw dramatic change in passing. Today we saw dramatic change in defense. I told the guys that we can’t let them shoot 46 percent in the first half, so in the second, we held them to 28.6.”

NC State’s Dennis Smith Jr, coming off of a 32-point performance in their win over Duke on Monday, was held to single-digit scoring for the first time this season. Mitchell and Levitch shared defensive duties and held the freshman to eight points.

The Cards next game is Feb. 4 against Boston College in Chestnut Hill. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.