Jordan Nwora, Darius Perry lead Louisville to 78-55 rout of Youngstown State

Jordan Nwora scored 21 points and Darius Perry dished out a career-high 12 assists as Louisville rolled to a 78-55 win over Youngstown State in its 2019-20 home opener Sunday afternoon.

The Cardinals shot a red hot 50.8 percent from the field and had four players score in double figures. That wasn’t enough to satisfy U of L head coach Chris Mack, who wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the performance during his postgame interview on Fox Sports.

“It’s not about the score,” Mack said. “I’ll refrain from evaluating our effort. I didn’t think we gave very much.”

One player who escaped Mack’s scorn was Perry. The junior point guard ran Louisville’s offensive effectively all afternoon, finishing with 10 points to go along with those 12 assists, his first career double-double. Perry also turned the ball over once despite facing a Youngstown State defense that emphasizes ball pressure.

“Darius did a really good job,” Mack said. “He’s a talented player. I thought he was really giving effort on the defensive end as well. He wasn’t one of the guys that was letting us down. I thought he had a marvelous game for the most part.”

Louisville appeared poised to turn the game into a rout early on, but Youngstown State scored the final 10 points of the first half to trim the Cardinal advantage to 38-31 heading into the break. U of L responded by coming out of the locker room with a Ryan McMahon jumper and two Nwora dunks to quickly put to bed any thoughts of a Penguin upset.

McMahon finished with 16 points for a second straight game, knocking down 4-of-7 shots from beyond the arc. Steven Enoch also took full advantage of the undersized YSU frontcourt, posting 17 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

Louisville has now won 51 consecutive home games in November, a streak which dates all the way back to 1972. The Cardinals also improved to 37-0 all-time in November games played inside the KFC Yum Center.

Here’s the final box score: