After a rough loss at SMU earlier this week, No. 21 Louisville scorched visiting Georgia Tech wire-to-wire 87-70 in an Athletic Coast Conference matchup Saturday afternoon.
Mikel Brown Jr. continued his strong play with 19 points, including three made 3-pointers, to lead the Cardinals (20-7, 9-5 ACC). J’Vonne Hadley had 17 points, Ryan Conwell scored 15 points and four assists and Isaac McKneely added 14 while making all four of his shots, including three 3-pointers.
Louisville was dead on from the field for the majority of the game, making 27 of 52 shots (51.9%), while also making 14 of 31 3-point attempts (45.2%).
For the second straight game the Cardinals set a season-high in turnovers, but Georgia Tech only scored 12 points off 18 Louisville turnovers.
Georgia Tech (11-17, 2-13) dropped its ninth straight. Baye Ndongo led the way for the Yellow Jackets with 17 points and a game-high seven rebounds. Akai Fleming had 15 points and Jaeden Mustaf and Lamar Washington each added 12.
The Yellow Jackets were held to shooting just 16.7% from 3-point range (3 of 18), though they shot 45.9% overall (28 of 61).
The Cardinals came out of the break with a 20-4 run to blow the game open after back-to-back 3-pointers by Brown and Aly Khalifa. The lead stretched to 64-39 with 11:58 to play.
Georgia Tech used a 14-0 run to cut the deficit to 66-55 with 7:38 left behind six points from Fleming.
The Yellow Jackets never got closer the rest of the way.
Georgia Tech cut into a big first-half margin with a 12-0 run right before the break to cut it to 37-31 after a Washington 3-pointer with 53 seconds left.
Louisville answered with a quick second-chance jumper and a 3-pointer by Conwell to extend the lead to 42-31 at the half.
The Cardinals set the tempo early by making 7 of 17 3-pointers in the first half to separate themselves from the Yellow Jackets.
Brown and Ndongo each had 10 points at the half.
