Louisville Continues Road Swing at Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Louisville men's basketball completes its road swing through North Carolina with a trip to Wake Forest at 12 p.m. ET Saturday in Winston-Salem, N.C. The game will air on ESPNU.

The Cardinals are coming off an 86-70 road loss at No. 4/3 North Carolina. Louisville cut a 17-point halftime deficit to five in the second half before the Tar Heels pulled away. After winning nine games in a row, Wake Forest has dropped two of its last three, including an 83-76 loss at NC State on Tuesday.

Louisville is 9-4 all-time against the Demon Deacons but has lost two in a row. The Cardinals are 3-2 in the series in Winston-Salem.

GAME 18

Louisville (6-11, 1-5 ACC) at Wake Forest (12-5, 4-2 ACC)
January 19, 2024 | 12 p.m. CT
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum | Winston-Salem, N.C.

MEDIA INFO

Listen: Cardinal Sports Network (WLCL 93.9 FM & WGTK 970 AM flagship); Streaming (Paul Rogers, pxp | Jody Demling, analysis)

Watch: ESPNU (Anish Shroff, pxp | Josh Pastner, analysis)

Live Stats: Wake Forest Stats

TOP STORYLINES

• Louisville is heading into the fourth game of a stretch of five straight matchups against teams in the top six in the ACC standings. Those teams are a combined 22-7 in league play. Wake Forest is the third straight road game for Louisville against a team that enters undefeated at home.

• Over the last four games, the Cardinals are 36-for-77 (46.8%) from 3-point range. They shot 28.4% from 3 over the first 13 games of the season. Louisville has also had at least 14 assists in four of the last seven games after not tallying more than 13 assists in any of the first 10 games. The Cards have outshot three of their last four opponents from the field.

• In the last four games, redshirt sophomore Mike James is averaging 19.5 points per game, while shooting 54.3% from the field (25 of 46), 75% from 3-point range (12 of 16) and 80% from the free-throw line (16-20).

• Over the last seven games, junior forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield is averaging 14.8 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 62.9% from the field (44 of 70). After registering two double-doubles in the first 68 games of his career, he has four in his last eight games.

• Freshman guard/forward Curtis Williams is averaging 11.7 points off the bench over the last seven games while making 19 of 42 3-pointers (45.2%). He was 5-for-18 from 3 (27.8%) over the first 10 games. After not reaching double figures in the first 10 games of his career, Williams has scored at least 11 points in five of the last seven.

• UofL associate head coach Danny Manning served as head coach at Wake Forest for six seasons from 2014-20.

HISTORY VS. WAKE FOREST (UofL leads 9-4)

Last Meeting: Wake Forest 80, Louisville 72
Jan. 7, 2023 | Louisville, Ky.

Louisville men's basketball stormed back from a 22-point deficit to within one possession, before settling for an 80-72 loss to Wake Forest at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals trailed by as much as 22 and still by 18 at 62-44 with 7:21 to play when their comeback surge began.

Redshirt freshman guard/forward Mike James had 14 points during that run, which started with an 8-0 spurt. James' third 3-pointer in less than four minutes trimmed Wake Forest's lead to 70-67 with 2:40 to go.

The Demon Deacons answered with a 3 by Damari Monsanto and two free throws from Tyree Appleby to keep the Cardinals at bay.

James finished with a game-high 24 points. He also had a career-high eight rebounds and knocked down a career-best 5 of 9 3-pointers.

Senior guard El Ellis had 20 points and eight assists, and redshirt junior forward Jae'Lyn Withers added 11 points and five rebounds. Junior forward JJ Traynor contributed seven points and seven boards off the bench.

Cameron Hildreth paced Wake Forest with 19 points and eight rebounds.

University of Louisville Athletics

Players Mentioned

El Ellis

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield

Mike James

JJ Traynor

Curtis Williams

Jae'Lyn Withers

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