By Harry Barsan

The No. 23 Louisville Cardinals defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies at home by a score of 85-71.

The Cards led nearly wire-to-wire and despite giving up 49 second-half points, came out comfortably on top.

It’s a blizzard out there

In his first game back since early December, Mikel Brown Jr. knew he had to put on for this home crowd. He scored the game’s first bucket on a three-point jumper.

Unfortunately, that would be the most action you’d see in this game for a while. The Cards failed to string together any good offensive sequence, going ice-cold until their second field goal nearly 5 minutes later.

An equally frigid effort from Tech meant that by the halfway point, the Cards’ fourth bucket gave them a 13-11 lead. Either team could have taken over given this game’s pace.

The Cardinals found a groove when Adrian Wooley nailed a three right before J’Vonne Hadley scored three the hard way on an and-1 layup. Ryan Conwell drained his second three-pointer, and a Wooley half-ending fast break gave Louisville a 15-point lead.

While the Cardinals defrosted after an icy start, the Tech offense was still cold to the touch. Tech had nine turnovers in the first half and eight field goals. Aman Hansberry, the team’s primary leading scorer, only managed a single free throw through the half.

The Cardinals led the Hokies at halftime 37-22.

Saturday Scaries

A few scores from Hadley, Fru and McKneely pushed the Cards up 20 before the Hokies began to chip away at the lead.

Tech scored on back to back triples, eventually matching their five total first half bombs with five by the 10 minute mark as the lead shrank down to 14. The lead shrank again as Hansberry finally found his footing with consecutive threes to make this thing a scary eight point ball game.

It wasn’t scary enough though, at least not for Sananda Fru who stared down Lawai Tobi on and-1 lay for three of his own. As a cherry on top, he scored the Cards’ next bucket to set his tally to 11 on the night.

Louisville guards Conwell and Brown Jr. gave everyone some insurance. Their buckets gave the Cards a big 17 point lead with three minutes left.

The Cards never sweated past that little flare late in the half. They rode an 85-71 victory into the sunset.

We’re Back

The Cardinals are back in business with back to back statement ACC wins and Mikel Brown Jr. returning to the lineup.

Mikel Brown Jr. showed up big in his first game since injury, posting up with the team leading 20 points despite playing a little over half the game.

Fru and Hadley led the charge for the Cards near the rim. They scored a a huge chunk of the team’s 36 points in the paint. Fru had a 13 point double-double with 10 boards while Hadley scored 14 on the night.

Ryan Conwell was key offensively late in the game. He notched 15 points on a team-leading four threes in this duel.

As a team, the Cards shot 47% from the field and just under 40% from the three, making 13 of the latter. While the Hokies allowed 16 threes —including 11 in the second half — the Cards were turned away just about everywhere else. They managed only 14 total points in the paint.

Late efforts from Tech’s Bedford and Hansberry were no good on a night where the Cards only let up a short window early.

The Cards advance to 14-5 on the year and will seek revenge at #5 Duke on Monday. The Cards fell to Duke earlier this season by a score of 84-73.

Photo by Adam Mouchrani