ATLANTA -- Louisville finally found a solution for its 3-point shooting problems. And it came just in time.

After making only 9 of 41 3-pointers in their first two ACC games, the No. 9-ranked Cardinals turned the weakness into a strength and used it to beat Georgia Tech 65-50 on Saturday and win their first conference game.

Louisville (13-3, 1-2 ACC) shot 56.3 percent (9 for 16) on 3-pointers, 24 percentage points higher than their season average.

"We knew they were going to come out playing zone," said Cardinals assistant David Padgett, who addressed the media when head coach Rick Pitino made himself unavailable after the game. "We expected that. I thought our guys did a great job getting in the lane and when you get the ball in the lane, the defense has to collapse and then we did a great job kicking it out. They stuck with the game plan. Took good shots."

Guard Donovan Mitchell made a career-best five 3-point baskets and scored 20 points to spark Louisville to its sixth straight win over Georgia Tech. Mitchell shot 5 of 7 on 3-pointers, one more than his previous best against Indiana, and added four assists.

The Cardinals shot 7 of 27 on 3-pointers against Notre Dame and were 2 of 14 against Virginia, both losses. The nine 3-pointers Saturday were the most against a Power 5 conference opponent this season.

Mitchell gave Louisville a 15-point lead, its largest of the game, when his second straight 3-pointer made it 41-26 with 12:14 remaining.

But Georgia Tech began to get the ball inside to center Ben Lammers, who scored 14 of the team's next 16 points -- two of them dunks -- and cut the lead to 43-40 with 9:21 left.

"We did a good job on him in the first half and he kind of got going in the second," Padgett said.

At that point, Louisville came back with a dunk from Ray Spalding and two more 3-pointers -- one from Quentin Snider and another from Mitchell -- to help the Cardinals regain the momentum. The 12-4 run helped Louisville re-establish its double-digit lead.

Louisville also got 12 points and seven assists from Snider and 10 points and five rebounds from Mangok Mathiang, who fouled out. Spalding had a game-high 12 rebounds.

Lammers finished with a career-high 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting and added nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Georgia Tech (9-6, 1-2) also got 15 points and seven rebounds from freshman Josh Okogie.

But Georgia Tech's other shooters were woefully off. Tadric Jackson was 1-for-10 from the field and Quentin Stephens was 0-for-3 with five turnovers.

"We're fighting like crazy," Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said. "We're just very limited offensively, so it's hard for us to win. We need to find some other scorers."

Louisville shot 5 of 9 on 3-pointers in the first half and had a 27-18 lead at halftime. It matched Georgia Tech's lowest first-half output. The Yellow Jackets managed only 18 against Georgia on Dec. 20.

The game was tied 3-3 when Louisville reeled off 13 unanswered points, the last a 3-pointer by Mitchell with 15:06 left. Georgia Tech broke a four-minute scoreless streak on its next possession on Abdoulaye Gueye's layup and worked the lead down to eight points but could get no closer.

"For us that first 4-5 minutes it was like the movie 'Jaws' or something," Pastner said. "You're on the ocean and all of a sudden 'Jaws' comes up and eats you. Other than that, we played great. We played hard. We gave every ounce of effort and energy and tried as hard as we could."

Louisville's Deng Adel left the game with 4:53 remaining in the first half with an injury. The sophomore hit the court after having back-to-back shots blocked by Lammers. He was helped off the court by the training staff and taken to the locker room. He did not return in the second half.

"We had some guys step up and we'll have to see what the situation is with Deng," Padgett said.

NOTES: Louisville improved to 10-1 when holding a lead at halftime. ... The game was delayed 15 minutes while the operations team replaced the shot clock over the basket on the Georgia Tech end of the court. ... Georgia Tech gave G Josh Heath his second start of the season. Tadric Jackson, who had started the previous four games, came off the bench. ... Louisville returns home Wednesday against Pittsburgh. Georgia Tech hosts Clemson on Thursday.