Field Level Media
Nov 13, 2018
Louisville's Jordan Nwora came off the bench to score 15 first-half points to spark the Cardinals to an easy 104-54 win on Tuesday over visiting Southern.
Nwora's back-to-back steals, followed by thunderous dunks on each steal, were part of a 22-5 Louisville run that saw the Cardinals open a 36-12 lead.
Nwora led the Cardinals (2-0) with a career-high 20 points and added seven boards. Malik Williams also recorded a career-high 17 points. Steven Enoch was almost perfect, going 4 of 5 from the field and 5-for-5 from the free-throw line for 13 points.
Eddie Reese, who came in as the Jaguars' leading scorer at 17.0 points per game, didn't take a field-goal attempt until the 6:26 mark of the first half. He finished with just three points and four turnovers, and spent much of the second half on the bench with an apparent hip injury.
The first half was a foul fest with 35 fouls called, 21 on the Jaguars and 14 on the Cardinals. The second-half was much of the same as Southern was called for 39 fouls and Louisville was whistled 26 times.
The Cardinals went to the free-throw line 23 times in the first half and connected on 17 attempts.
In their season-opening win against Nicholls, the Cardinals went to the free-throw line a whopping 55 times, making 42. On Tuesday, Louisville finished 31-for-39 from the charity stripe.
Aaron Ray led Southern (0-3) with 14 points and eight rebounds.
Southern's previous losses were against Alabama and Baylor. The Jaguars actually led the Bears 35-34 with under 16 minutes to go before being blown out.
Tuesday's contest never was in doubt once Chris Mack's squad got rolling.
The Cardinals led wire-to-wire with Enoch sinking two free throws to start the scoring. Ray's step-back jumper tied the game at 2-all.
A quick 7-0 run put the Cards up 9-2. Ray's old-fashioned three cut the deficit to 9-5, as the Jaguars were able to keep the game close for the first six minutes.
Leading by four at 11-7, Louisville's Ryan McMahon drained a 3-point jumper to ignite the Cardinals' run.
By the time Jayden Sadler stopped the bleeding with a pull-up jumper with just under six minutes left in the half, the Cardinals were up by 22.
The Cardinals took a 49-22 lead into intermission and were well on their way to their 48th straight November home win.
Louisville opened the second half on a 13-6 with V.J. King scoring seven of those points.
The Cardinals scored 85 points in the win against Nicholls State. On Tuesday, the Cardinals surpassed 85 points on Darius Perry's 3-point jumper with 6:51 to go.
--Field Level Media