It wasn’t pretty, especially in the early going, but Louisville basketball used sound defense and Ryan McMahon’s deadliest night from deep yet to put away NC State.
The Cardinals began the game in a sleepy fashion. Five fouls in the first three minutes and 10 fouls and 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes set the tone of a game that felt like nothing was going to go right.
“We felt like we were going to get a team who came in desperate and punch us in the mouth early,” head coach Chris Mack commented in the postgame.