N.C. State never had a chance.
Like the pole sitter at the Indy 500, Louisville roared away from the start, kept its collective feet on the gas and destroyed the Wolfpack 91-66 in the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C., Wednesday night.
It was the Cardinals' largest margin of victory ever in Raleigh and matched the biggest for either team in the series. It also marked the first time in 111 seasons that a U of L team has recorded five wins of 20 points or more on opponents' homecourts.
The victory enabled the Cards (19-6 overall) to keep pace with Clemson in second place in the ACC at 12-2, close on the heels of Duke (12-1) and surpass the number of regular season conference victories from the last three seasons combined (11).
Nearly every Cardinal who played joined in the fun, including the walking wounded duo of Chucky Hepburn and James Scott. Hepburn, who missed Saturday's win over Miami with a groin injury, returned and produced his usual all-around solid production with 15 points and six assists in 31 minutes while hitting 5-of-7 shots.
"I didn't see any issues, didn't hear any issues from him or from Katie Creznik, our sports medicine person," U of L coach Pat Kelsey said. "So seems like he got through the game in good shape."
Scott, wearing a mask designed by the U of L School of Engineering to protect his mouth after getting two front teeth knocked out against Miami and having bone fragments removed from his lip and upper gum, may have been in pain, but he didn't show it, collecting 17 points and a team-high nine rebounds.
"Gosh darn, not only did James have his teeth knocked out but he's got facial fractures," Kelsey said. "He's such a nice, sweet kid and tough as nails, but with that mask on he looks like the bad guy in one of those murder movies or something, a Hannibal Lecter type thing. I told him he looked mean."
The 6-foot-11 sophomore from nearby Fayetteville, N.C., played mean too, putting on an intense 21-minute show for his mother and his namesake grandfather, a U.S. Army veteran who watched from his wheelchair.
Reyne Smith and Terrence Edwards Jr. each scored 21 points for Louisville, combining to hit 9-of-13 three-pointers, and Aboubacar Traore had nine points and five boards in just 15 minutes.
With everyone clicking, the Cards shot a season-high 63.6 percent for the game and hit 11-of-19 treys, with four players making at least one. Smith was 5-of-9 from distance and Edwards made all four of his attempts.
In handing NC State (9-15, 2-11) its 10th straight loss, U of L raced ahead 18-5 in the first eight minutes, led 41-27 at halftime, then outscored the Wolfpack 19-8 to start the second half and went on to lead by as many as 28 points No one, not Duke, not Kansas, not Clemson, not Purdue -- all top 25 teams -- had blown the Pack out like that.
"We say that when the ball goes up at the jump circle, our readiness is really, really important," Kelsey said. "And we did a good job getting some stops early on, made shots, got a little bit of momentum and kind of rode that wave from the beginning."
As in wave goodbye to their hosts, who were led by freshman Trey Parker with 13 points. Former Cardinal Brandon Huntley-Hatfield returned after missing three games with an injury and got a game-high 10 rebounds.
Louisville will meet Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., Sunday, then play four of their last five games at home, starting with Florida State next Wednesday.
Chuck Hepburn was back helping Louisville to a 91-66 win over N.C. State on Wednesday. (Louisille Athletics photo)
