On an afternoon where George Mason threatened to ruin the start of the David Padgett era, some old and new faces stepped up to save the day for the Louisville Cardinals.
Deng Adel scored a game-high 20 points while the freshmen duo of Darius Perry and Jordan Nwora combined to go 6-of-6 from three and 9-of-10 from the free-throw line to lead the Cardinals to a 72-61 season-opening victory. Nwora’s final pair of shots from beyond the arc turned a 54-53 U of L lead into a 60-55 Cardinal advantage with just 3:16 to play. From there, the freshmen trio of Nwora, Perry and Malik Williams made seven consecutive free-throws to put the game on ice.