Louisville crushed Georgia Tech Saturday in Atlanta in front of a large crowd of Louisville fans. Here's what you need to know.
1. Nwora and Cards roll
Georgia Tech scored the first two points of the game then the contest was stopped for 10 minutes to figure out why the clocks weren't working. When the game was restarted, Louisville scored the next nine points and 16 of the next 18 points.
By the six minute mark of the first half, Louisville built a 31-6 lead and Georgia Tech was sunk. Louisville's lead was built at the hands of Malik Williams and Jordan Nwora, who both rained shots from outside to push Louisville to a commanding lead.
Nwora ended the first half with 21 points as Louisville went into the locker room up 43-16.
Louisville's defensive intensity wasn't as smothering in the second half, and the Cardinals experimented with other lineups, but not before Louisville pushed to a 67-29 lead with 11:08 left.
Nwora ended up with 25 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes. Williams scored 13 points and had five rebounds in 16 minutes. Stephen Enoch had 15 points and six rebounds in 20 minutes as Louisville cruised to a 79-51 win.
2. Short-handed Tech played terrible
Tech was short-handed, no doubt. The Yellow Jackets were missed three players including a two of the top five scorers. That said, Louisville dominated GT so thoroughly that it reminded Louisville fans of the football game between the Cards and Tech last year.
Before the final stretch when Louisville pulled its lineups, Georgia Tech was shooting under 30 percent for the game and had 17 turnovers. The Yellow Jackets were 1 of 10 from three-point range and hit just 12 of 24 from the foul line.
Tech came into the game with a 68 ranking in the Ken Pom ratings and 70 in the Sagarin. Both were very comparable to the Pitt team that beat Louisville in Pittsburgh last week. But this wasn't going to be an upset as the Cardinals took control early and cruised the rest of the game.
3. Louisville fans took over
Each year a large group of Louisville fans pick a road trip and make a weekend bus trip out of it. This was that game, and it turned out to be a perfect trip.
Louisville fans took over the arena and were loudly celebrating on the TV broadcast in the final 10 minutes as most of the remaining Georgia Tech fans went home.
