Louisville Cardinals vs Pittsburgh Panthers Match Player Stats On Dec 22, 2020

David Johnson collected 17 points and 11 rebounds as visiting Louisville scored a 64-54 victory over shorthanded Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

Louisville (5-1, 1-0 ACC) started fast, led the entire game and rebounded from an ugly 85-48 loss at Wisconsin in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Saturday.

Pitt has been besieged by COVID-19 issues, which prevented head coach Jeff Capel and the Panthers' top two scorers from attending.

Johnson made 7 of 11 shots as Louisville shot 47.1 percent (24-of-51) and beat the Panthers (5-2, 1-1) for the 16th time in the past 17 meetings. Samuell Williamson also notched a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds to help the Cardinals to a commanding 45-26 rebounding edge.

Pitt shot 42.1 percent from the foul line and 28.6 percent from 3-point range.

Louisville leading scorer Carlik Jones contributed 11 points and seven assists in his first game since Dec. 1. He tested positive for COVID-19 after Louisville's win over Western Kentucky and was not entirely cleared for Saturday's game. He was 3 of 12 from the field.

The loss ended a five-game winning streak for Pitt.

The Panthers announced before the game leading scorer Justin Champagnie would miss six to eight weeks with a knee injury. The Panthers were without second-leading scorer Au'Diese Toney due to a right ankle injury.

Freshman Femi Odukale led the Panthers with 16 points on 7 of 15 shooting. Xavier Johnson missed his first six shots but added 10 points as Pittsburgh shot 40.4 percent (21-of-52).

Louisville surged ahead with a 14-2 run and sped out to a 24-9 lead on a 3-pointer by Josh Nickelberry with 10:31 remaining in the first half. Pittsburgh answered with a 19-6 spurt and was within 30-28 by halftime though the Panthers missed a chance at getting the lead when Odukale's 3-point try missed at the buzzer.

Pittsburgh closed to a 40-39 deficit after a dunk by Johnson with 11:59 remaining but Louisville never surrendered the lead. The Cardinals took a 51-43 lead on a layup by Traynor nearly four minutes later and went ahead 58-48 on a layup by Johnson with 3:03 remaining.

--Field Level Media