Jordan Nwora scored 17 of his 20 points in No. 15 Louisville's big first half on its way to an 82-54 victory over Wake Forest on Wednesday night at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Louisville (16-5, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) has won six games in a row and shares first place in the league with Duke and Virginia. The Cardinals are off to their best eight-game start in five seasons of ACC play.

Nwora has reached the 20-point mark in four conference outings.

Dwayne Sutton's 17 points, Malik Williams' 13 points and Ryan McMahon's 12 points also boosted the Cardinals, who have won three ACC road games by more than a 20-point margin.

Brandon Childress scored 13 points, Jaylen Hoard had 11 and Chaundee Brown added 10 for Wake Forest, which has lost four games in a row. The Demon Deacons shot 26.5 percent from the field.

Wake Forest (8-12, 1-7) played its fifth nationally ranked team this month, and it has won only one of those contests.

Louisville began the second half on a 16-4 spurt to extend the lead to 35 points.

Even Wake Forest's 10-0 run cut the margin to only 70-50 with about six minutes remaining.

Louisville was 2-for-11 on second-half threes but ended up 10-for-24 for the game.

Louisville held a 48-25 halftime lead, shooting 54.5 percent from the field. That included 8-for-13 on 3-point attempts.

Wake Forest connected on only 29 percent in the first half, missing all five of its long-range shots. The Demon Deacons had one assist in the half.

Louisville was up 21-10 slightly more than nine minutes into the game. The Cardinals were 7-for-12 on threes for a 34-18 lead.

Both teams finished with 11 turnovers.

The game marked the return to Lawrence Joel Coliseum for Dino Gaudio, who is in his first season as a Louisville assistant coach. He is a former Wake Forest head coach, while first-year Louisville coach Chris Mack is a former Wake Forest assistant coach.

--Field Level Media