No. 6 Louisville powers past Wake Forest in close matchup

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Chris Jones scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half and No. 6 Louisville won its Atlantic Coast Conference debut, pulling away to beat Wake Forest 85-76 on Sunday night.

Jones added a career-high 10 assists and Montrezl Harrell had 25 points and 13 rebounds for the Cardinals (13-1, 1-0). They let a 13-point lead slip away before Jones took over late, scoring 14 points in the final 8 minutes and leading the decisive 16-3 run.

Devin Thomas had a career-high 31 points and 11 rebounds for Wake Forest (8-7, 0-2), which led 69-68 on Konstantinos Mitoglou's layup with just under 6 minutes to play.

Jones put Louisville ahead to stay two possessions later with a contested jumper that started decisive run. He was 6 for 6 from the free-throw line in the final 5 minutes for Louisville, which scored on nine of its last 10 possessions.

Codi Miller-McIntyre and freshman Mitchell Wilbekin had 14 points apiece for Wake Forest, which had its three-game winning streak snapped but won't have to wait long for another shot at a top-five team: No. 2 Duke visits later this week.

Terry Rozier added 18 points for the Cardinals, who are playing in their eighth basketball conference and their third in three years, with their one-season stint in the American Athletic Conference in 2013-14 coming after the Big East broke up.

Early on, Harrell — a North Carolina native who had his own section of fans holding up welcome-home signs at Joel Coliseum — certainly felt right at home.

He had 20 points in the first half and keyed the early 23-6 run that put the Cardinals up by 13.

The Demon Deacons scored the first 10 points of the second half, then took their first lead since the opening minutes when Miller-McIntyre's scoop layup made it 55-54 with just under 13 minutes left. Neither team led by more than five the rest of the way until the Cardinals pulled away.

TIP-INS

Louisville: Rick Pitino improved to 3-0 during his Hall of Fame career against Wake Forest. His other two wins came when he was at Kentucky in the NCAA tournament.

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons fell to 0-2 against the Pitino family. Minnesota — coached by Rick's son, Pitino — beat Wake Forest 84-69 on Dec. 2 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

UP NEXT

Louisville plays host to Clemson on Wednesday night in its first home ACC game.

Wake Forest plays host to No. 2 Duke on Wednesday night.