Sananda Fru tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds as No. 20 Louisville had to play from behind to end a two-game losing streak in an 75-62 win over visiting Boston College on Saturday.
Louisville was without its injured top two scorers, starting guards Ryan Conwell (knee) and Mikel Brown Jr. (back), and trailed until midway through the second half, but rallied late to pull away.
The Cardinals (12-4, 2-2 ACC) broke a 53-53 tie at 8:35 to play with an 11-0 run to pull away from Boston College. Four different Cardinals scored in that run, which was typical for a balanced effort. Before that late run, Louisville spent most of the game trailing.
Boston College led by as many as 10 points in the first half and a 3-pointer from Fred Payne gave the Eagles a 41-32 lead with 18:22 to play. Louisville answered with a 9-0 rally to draw even. The Cardinals claimed their first lead of the game at 44-43 on an Aly Khalifa 3-pointer with 14 minutes to play, and the teams traded leads until the decisive run.
Louisville was paced by Fru’s double-double, as he shot 8-for-9 from the field. Adrian Wooley notched 16 points, which included 6-for-8 foul shooting. Isaac McKneely scored all 13 of his points in the second half and J’Vonne Hadley tallied 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting.
The Cardinals shot just 2-for-11 from 3-point range in trailing 34-30 at halftime but rallied to hand head coach Pat Kelsey his 300th career victory.
Boston College (7-9, 0-3) was led by Payne’s 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting, including going 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Payne scored 14 of his points in the first half.
Donald Hand Jr. added 12 points but shot just 3 of 17 from the field. Luka Toews tallied 11 points and Boden Kapke had 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Eagles have been one of the worst shooting teams in college basketball and after shooting 29 percent in the second half, finished at 36.5 percent overall (23-for-63).
