No. 19 Louisville (18-4, 7-2) hosted No. 2 UNC (19-3, 8-1) and got the better of the Tar Heels in a 71-65 win. It was a battle of the best teams in the ACC record-wise and the home court advantage of the KFC Yum! Center was certainly the deciding factor. The crowd and Louisville's defense held Marcus Paige to under 10 points scoring and forced UNC to shoot under 35 percent from the floor.
The Cards dropped a game to Virginia over the weekend, but that only gave them the determination to give the ACC-leading Tar Heels all they could handle. Damion Lee might have struggled against UVA, but had 24 points against UNC and had some help from big man Chinanu Onuaku who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Donovan Mitchell also played a pivotal role by chipping in 10 points off the bench. UNC's Brice Johnson also had a double-double with 15 points and 11 boards, but that was not enough to compensate for the rest of the team's poor shooting performance.