Field Level Media
Jan 7, 2020
ACC Preseason Player of the Year Jordan Nwora had 19 points, 12 rebounds and four assists, leading the 13th-ranked Louisville Cardinals to a 74-58 win over the visiting Miami Hurricanes on Tuesday night.
Louisville center Steven Enoch added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Dwyane Sutton had nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Chris Lykes and Kameron McGusty led Miami with 18 points each. Dejan Vasiljevic added 12 points.
Louisville (12-3, 3-1 ACC), which was ranked No. 1 in the nation one month ago, snapped a two-game losing streak. The Cardinals also swept their two-game season series against the Hurricanes.
Miami (9-5, 1-3) lost its second straight game and fell to 0-3 against top-20 teams this season.
The Hurricanes were without their top reserve, graduate transfer power forward Keith Stone, who was ruled out prior to the game due to an injured left knee. He is averaging 5.5 points and 3.8 rebounds.
That left the Canes with just eight healthy scholarship players, including starting forward Sam Waardenburg, who is playing with tendinitis on his right knee, and freshman guard Harlond Beverly, who has a left shoulder that was so sore before the game that he could not lift it above his head.
Waardenburg managed five points and 10 rebounds. Beverly had two points in three minutes.
Thanks to a pair of Lykes jumpers -- including one from 3-point range -- Miami took its only lead of the game at 5-4 with 17:23 left in the first half.
Nwora answered with a 3-pointer just 15 seconds later, and the Cardinals rolled from there, taking a 43-32 lead into halftime.
The Cardinals, who led by as many as 20 points in the first half, were plus-seven on rebounds in the first 20 minutes, shooting 48.5 percent overall and hitting 5 of 10 3-pointers. Miami shot 32.3 percent.
In the second half, Miami cut its deficit to 51-46 on three free throws from Lykes with 9:39 left. McGusty missed a bank shot on Miami's next possession that could have cut its deficit to three points.
Louisville, still leading by five with under four minutes to go, got a three-point play by Darius Perry and a 3-pointer from Ryan McMahon on consecutive possessions to put the game away.
--Field Level Media