Man, it feels good to be home again.
After a stretch of three out of four games being on the road (two of the three being losses), the Cardinals got a chance to take on sliding Villanova at home on Wednesday night. The road environment didn't phase the Wildcats early, who took a five point, 44-39 lead into the half. But the second half was all Louisville, who outscored Villanova by fifteen to finish regulation and claim a ten point 84-74 victory. Louisville improves to 16-5 overall on the year, and finally gets back to .500 at 4-4 in conference.
Scoring was a team effort for the Cards in this one, with five players in double-figures and all pretty close together: Peyton Siva led the team with 16, while Chane Behanan, Kyle Kuric, and Chris Smith all added 14 a-piece. Gorgui Dieng was the other double-digit man with 12.
The game's leading scorer was Villanova guard Maalik Wayns, who put up 19 against the Cards, right on par with his 18.7 per game average this year. It's actually his first game under twenty since a three point performance against #1 Syracuse on January 11th. The three games in between, Wayns but up 39 in a loss to Cincinnati, 25 in a win over Seton Hall, and 28 in a win over St. John's. Needless to say, the Cardinal defense was able to cool him off a bit. Two other Wildcats scored in double-figures: guard James Bell added 14, and forward Mouphtaou Yarou added 10.
Much like the Pittsburgh win, Louisville was able to edge out Villanova from the charity stripe; much of this came during the final couple minutes as Villanova tried to extend the game, but however you get the points, it all contributes to the win. Louisville was 24 of 34 from the free throw line, where Villanova was only 17 of 23.
Louisville shot only slightly better than Villanova from the field altogether, but did have a sizable advantage from distance. Nova connected on five triples, but at just a shade over 26%. The Cards knocked down eight three-pointers at nearly 35%.
For the first time in 2012, the Louisville Cardinals are on a winning streak! They will put that streak on the line next against Seton Hall on Saturday. Seton Hall is the only other Big East team currently at 4-4 other than Louisville - so a win would mean climbing another notch back up the conference ladder. The game is at 8:00pm on the road at the Prudential Center.
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