Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Louisville Cardinals Match Player Stats On Mar 03, 2019

Jordan Nwora collected 20 points and 11 rebounds on Sunday as Louisville destroyed visiting Notre Dame in the paint to earn a 75-61 Atlantic Coast Conference win.

Malik Williams added 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Cardinals (19-11, 10-7), who outrebounded the Fighting Irish 49-30, allowing just seven offensive rebounds out of 48 available missed shots. Senior point guard Christen Cunningham scored 14 points in his final home game.

John Mooney scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for Notre Dame (13-16, 3-13), while compiling his ACC-high 18th double-double of the season. Prentiss Hubb added 16 points and T.J. Gibbs chipped in 11 for the Irish, which made only 38.7 percent of their field-goal tries and damaged their chances by hitting only 4 of 14 free throws.

Leading by five points at halftime, Louisville pulled away in the second half by going inside time and time again against a variety of defenses. Notre Dame tried man-to-man, and 2-3 and 1-3-1 zones, but none of those alignments could keep the Cardinals out of the lane.

Williams' putback with 17:10 left gave Louisville its first double-figure lead at 37-27. The Irish were able to keep pace for a while, drawing within 44-38 as freshman Nate Laszewski converted a layup with 14:21 left, but just couldn't string together stops.

The margin reached double digits again on Williams' layup with 11:13 remaining and only dipped below 10 once for the game's remainder, that time for all of 19 seconds. A Darius Perry 3-pointer upped the cushion to 67-53 with 7:17 left, and the game's remainder was a sprint to the final horn.

The Cardinals finished with an 18-4 advantage in second chance points and shot 47.6 percent from the field, more than offsetting 2 of 22 shooting from the 3-point line.

Neither team got off to a sizzling start. At the second media timeout, Louisville managed an 11-7 lead. But the Cardinals picked it up to take a 29-24 halftime edge.

--Field Level Media