By Harrison Plank

The No. 24 Louisville Cardinals came away with another quad one as they enter the final stretch of their season.

Flipping the script

J’vonne Hadley started strong for the cards, scoring five points to take an early lead.

Off the bench, Wake Forest’s Isaac Carr responded by hitting his ninth field goal of the season to get the Demon Deacons’ scoring engine started.

Louisville started the contest with long runs from individual players. After Hadley’s start and a Ryan Conwell bucket, Isaac McKneely scored eight straight to give the Cards an early 15-6 lead.

Although individual players were scoring in high volume, the team did its job by sharing the ball. Of the first six shots, five of them came off of assists.

A lapse in defensive pressure allowed Wake to chop away at the lead and bring back a little energy into the home crowd.

Sananda Fru silenced them quickly, though. His first buckets came from an over-the-shoulder post move and a slam on the fast break to keep the Cardinals’ lead at six, but Wake Forest seemingly had a response for every Louisville basket.

Mikel Brown Jr. struggled shooting early, but his vision still worked. He assisted Fru on yet another dunk as Louisville took back the momentum.

Up five, the Cards utilized full-court pressure to get Wake Forest off their rhythm, and it seemed to work. Brown Jr. took it to the other end and buried a three to give Louisville a 36-26 lead.

Good ball movement by the Cards got easy looks at the basket, and cutters like Khani Rooths and Fru shook their men for the slam.

While driving to the rim had been successful for the Cards, if their shots didn’t fall they had a good chance for points on potential fouls. Rooths showed off his athleticism by drawing contact multiple times and giving Louisville their biggest lead yet – 12 points. However, as Wake’s Juke Harris and Myles Colvin traded threes with Khani Rooths to make it nine by the end of the half.

Louisville led at the half 43-34.

The Cardinals continued to eat near the rim in the second half and a lob from Brown Jr. to Fru yet again pushed the lead back up to double digits.

J’vonne Hadley started this half similarly to the first. He scored on back to back and-one finishes, pushing the Cards ahead to their largest lead of the game.

Louisville led 54-39, but Omaha Biliew and Juke Harris scored at will. Sebastian Akins cleaned up after them with a second chance finish to put the Deacons within five. Their home crowd cheered loudly with a chance to get a major upset on the line.

Conwell silenced them with a deep three and looked to end an 11-2 Wake Forest run. This was not the case however, as even though Wake did not have success at the rim they were still keeping pace with the cards at the free throw line. Harris fueled their offense, often matching Louisville’s scoring output on his own.

Louisville switched into a zone, but even that couldn’t stop Harris, who continued to show out while the Cards tried to defend.

After a few more Wake Forest buckets they had cut it to a two point game. Louisville tried to get off a drawn up play, but the ball was poked out late. Kasean Pryor recovered and with a desperation heave nailed the three to put them up five.

Leads couldn’t seem to last as Wake surged and Brown Jr. had his pockets picked. Off the steal Harris had an and-one finish that tied the game up 78-78. After both teams were even; neither could get a field goal to fall. The remaining points in the game all came from the charity stripe.

Despite both teams being frigid from the field, Fru’s tough defense down the stretch and free throw success pushed the Cardinals toward a win.

Wake Forest played the foul game and Louisville’s leading free throw shooter, Mikel Brown Jr., buried his attempts late.

Louisville won 88-80.

On the busiest college basketball day of the season, with 154 Division One matchups scheduled, Louisville came away with a closer win than expected.

Throughout the competition Juke Harris was a major problem for the Cards. He finished the game with 25 points and 11 rebounds along with three assists. His presence on the court kept this game close down the stretch.

Louisville showed their ability to play as a complete team. Six players finished with double-digit scoring, but if an outstanding player should be named it has to be Sananada Fru. His 17 points led the Cards, along with six rebounds and two late game blocks that kept the Cardinals lead out of reach.

Mikel Brown Jr. has struggled in all but one game since coming back from injury. While he finished with 12 points, a lackluster one for seven shooting night from the three leaves much to be desired. His eight assists led to easy buckets at the rim or open looks. But ugly turnovers plagued him throughout the contest.

Louisville is now 17-6 on the season and 7-4 in the conference.

Photo By Nolton Alfred / The Louisville Cardinal