Adel also added 11 rebounds and three assists, but his best play might have been a chase-down block on Justin Robinson as the Hokie point guard tried to convert a transition layup that would have brought his team within four points with 1:16 remaining.

Quentin Snider added 19 points for the Cardinals (13-4, 3-1), while V.J. King was good for 16. Guard Ryan McMahon scored 10 off the bench, including a 25-foot 3-pointer with 2:31 left that gave Louisville an 85-77 lead.

Robinson paced Virginia Tech (13-5, 2-3) with 23 points, while Kerry Blackshear Jr. added 19 along with 12 rebounds for a double-double. Ahmed Hill contributed 17 points, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker hit for 10.

Tied at 74 with 5:08 left after a Hill layup, Louisville went on an 11-3 run to take command. Adel mixed in a pair of free throws and a pull-up jumper in the lane, while Snider and Ray Spalding also sank a pair of foul shots.

The Cardinals canned 52.5 percent of their field goal tries and drilled 13 of 23 3-pointers, while the Hokies sank 49.2 percent from the floor and outscored Louisville 40-28 in the paint.

The first half was occasionally sloppy and consistently entertaining, with the teams playing at a high tempo and exchanging runs.

Virginia Tech fired the first shot, ripping off eight straight points and taking a 19-13 lead at the 10:56 mark when Alexander-Walker sank two free throws. But Louisville responded with 10 straight points, as McMahon drained a long 3-pointer with 9:05 left to give it a 23-19 advantage.

The teams went back-and-forth from that point, exchanging the lead on multiple occasions before the Cardinals made the next run and went up 44-37 on a 3-pointer by Malik Williams. However, Hill wrapped up the half with a 25-footer for the Hokies, pulling them within four, 44-40, at the break.

--Field Level Media