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
Notre Dame | Louisville | |
John Mooney 22 | Scoring | Jordan Nwora 20 |
Prentiss Hubb 6 | Assists | Christen Cunningham 4 |
John Mooney 13 | Rebounds | Malik Williams 13 |
John Mooney 2 | Free Throws Made | Christen Cunningham 4 |
John Mooney 3 | Steals | Darius Perry 1 |
N/A | Blocks | Steven Enoch 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Notre Dame | 61 | 38.7 | 9-26 | 4-14 | 13 | 29 | 0 | 7 | 6 |
Louisville | 75 | 47.6 | 2-22 | 13-15 | 12 | 48 | 3 | 1 | 9 |