How it happened: No. 23 Louisville soars past Virginia Tech in Mikel Brown's return
Pat Kelsey’s 23rd-ranked Louisville team had a big week off. And not just because it’s the only period of conference play when the Cardinals will focus solely on themselves, but also because star freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. returned to practice.
In Louisville’s 85-71 home win over Virginia Tech, Brown made his first appearance in over a month after missing the last eight with a lower back injury, while sophomore forward Khani Rooths continues to miss time with an illness. Brown was fantastic in his ACC debut. The freshman scored a team-high 20 points, on 7-of-11 shooting, including three triples. The 6-foot-5 native of Orlando also dished out a Louisville-best six assists.
Brown played 28 minutes as he continues to work his way back to full form.
As a team, Louisville didn’t shoot the basketball well in the first 10 minutes, but closed the opening half on a 19-5 run and went into the locker room with a 15-point lead. It was a dominant start on the defensive end, as the Cards forced nine Virginia Tech turnovers, outrebounded the Hokies 27-20, and held Mike Young’s team to 8-of-33 (24.2%) shooting through the first half. After Louisville’s late first-half surge, it was all Cardinals as they had to fight off 11 second-half Hokies 3s.
Virginia Tech’s leading scorers, Neo Avdalas and Amani Hansberry, combined for just 14 points, almost half of their combined season average.
Graduate guard Jailen Bedford led the Hokies with 24 points and six made 3s. Bedford also added five rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes.
Louisville forward J’Vonne Hadley was coming off one of his better performances at Pittsburgh and provided 14 points against VT. Joining him in double-figures was German center Sananda Fru, leading scorer Ryan Conwell.
Fru was excellent against one of the more physical frontcourts in the ACC, adding a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, six of which were offensive.
Louisville’s ACC schedule is about to get tougher, with one of the most difficult weeks of the season coming up with a trip to No. 5 Duke and then a home meeting against SMU next weekend.
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