LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Terrence Edwards Jr. scored 18 points as No. 21 Louisville cruised to a 72-59 win over Wake Forest on Tuesday.


What You Need To Know

  • No. 21 Louisville beat Wake Forest 72-59

  • The team was undefeated in January—a first since 2009

  • Terrence Edwards, Jr. scored 18 points, leaading all players in scoring

  • UofL travels to Georgia Tech and will play Saturday, Feb. 1 at 3:45 p.m. on The CW 

A 12-0 run midway through the first half gave the Cardinals (16-5, 9-1 ACC) a 26-11 lead with 8:26 left and they led by 29 in the second half.

Coach Pat Kelsey said, “We’re just clicking. You just kind of feel it. We have a lot of momentum. We’re playing well together. Our offense is in a great rhythm and then they’re really guarding. No matter what the score is, if you’re up 20, you’re up 25, you’re up 27, when we get to those media timeouts, the first question I always ask is ‘what’s the score?’ They all say, ‘zero to zero,’ and we’re just trying to win that next four-minute segment.”

Reyne Smith added 16 points, and Chucky Hepburn finished with 14 points and eight assists as Louisville extended its winning streak to 10 games.

Hunter Salis, who came in third in the ACC with 18.9 points per game, scored 13 for Wake Forest (15-6, 7-3) before he was ejected with 14:47 remaining after picking up his second technical foul.

Wake Forest head coach, Steve Forbes said, “[Hunter Salis is] One of the premier players in our league. He’s one of the nicest young men, if not the nicest I’ve coached. I’m sure he was just frustrated, but that’s not how you handle that, and he knows that.”

Takeaways

Wake Forest: Just two days after holding No. 2 Duke to a season-low 63 points in a narrow loss, the Demon Deacons trailed Louisville 67-41 with 7:45 left. Wake came in allowing just 65.6 per game.

Louisville: A week after dismantling SMU on the road, the Cardinals came back home and easily handled another potential NCAA Tournament team from the ACC.

Kelsey said he and the team prepared for Wake and expected what they might see on the court. He said, “The staff and I, we watched every possession of their 1-3-1 throughout the course of the season. I think they’ve played 89 possessions [with the zone] throughout the course of the year. We made some tweaks, and at the shoot around yesterday we kind of scrapped what we had done the last couple of days and went to a kind of new attack, and the guys, like they always do, picked it up and executed it really well.”

Key moment

After Wake Forest ended Louisville’s run on a three-point play from Tre’Von Spillers with 8:09 left in the first half, Ty-Laur Johnson came up with a steal and went up for a dunk. But Johnson, who played for the Cardinals’ 8-24 squad last season, lost the ball and a chance for the Demon Deacons to build momentum.

Key stat

Edwards entered Tuesday shooting just 26.2% from beyond the arc for the season and 15.4% (6 for 39) in his previous seven games. He went 4 for 11 (36.4%) on Tuesday.

Up next

The Cards will hit the road for their next ACC game. They will visit Georgia Tech on Saturday, Feb. 1 for a 3:45 p.m. The game airs on The CW.