Toney curbs Louisville’s top scorer

But Nwora does other things to help his team win

Having now matched up against him four times, Au’Diese Toney is all too familiar with what it’s like trying to defend Jordan Nwora.

Louisville’s star forward, who bypassed the NBA draft to return to school for his junior season, has flummoxed any number of defenses this season, using his length and his range to post maybe the most impressive statline of any ACC player this season. Whenever Pitt plays the Cardinals, Toney, the Panthers’ sophomore forward, serves as Nwora’s primary defender, knowing full well the challenge that awaits with each game.

“You can’t relax,” Toney said Tuesday. “Most guys, you could take a couple of plays off, but Nwora, you can’t relax on him because he’s always going. He’s always a threat.”

In Louisville’s 73-68 overtime victory Tuesday at the Petersen Events Center, Nwora, in some ways, wasn’t his usual self. He finished with 14 points, tied for his second-lowest total in a game this season and nearly seven below his season average entering the night, a mark that led all ACC players. While doing so, a player whose offensive excellence is predicated on his shooting went just 38.5% from the field, his fourth-lowest percentage in a game this season.

Some credit certainly goes to Toney for that. At 6 feet 6, the Alabama native has a combination of length and quickness that makes him a strong and versatile defender. More important than that, he’s tenacious and aggressive, a constant pest for the player he’s left to mark. Of Nwora’s 14 points and five made field goals, five and two, respectively, came while Toney was on the bench.

“Every time we’ve played them, both times last year, earlier this year and then tonight, I think he just does a really good job guarding him,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “I think Au’Diese is a heck of a defender. But I think our team does a good job.”

That last part is important. For as much as Toney did, Pitt’s defensive game plan against Nwora wasn’t all centered around him. The Panthers didn’t spend the entirety of the game employing a man-to-man look, sometimes turning to various iterations of zone. On a night in which he played 32 of a possible 45 minutes, Toney wasn’t always right on Nwora. Trey McGowens spent time on the 6-7 forward, as did Justin Champagnie, who swatted a Nwora layup attempt in the second half after he got separation from Toney.

As effective as Pitt was limiting Nwora for long stretches, he didn’t play poorly, largely because he was able to help his team in some of the game’s more critical moments. It told a larger story of a Panthers defense that faltered in the second half and overtime.

After not scoring for the first 15:39, Nwora had 14 points in the final 29:20, making five of his nine shots and two of his four 3-pointers.

The fact Nwora only took 13 shots, making him not nearly as pronounced of a presence as he typically is in the Cardinals offense, was encouraging to his coach, Chris Mack, who said he has become more mature of a player than he was a year ago, when he went two of 14 for eight points in Louisville’s loss at Pitt.

“I’m proud of Jordan,” Mack said. “Every prolific scorer I’ve ever been around wants to score. He only took 13 shots. He didn’t fire bad ones up.”

That Nwora adjusted and helped his team get the win is what matters most.

“He’s not going to get 30 every single night, not against a team like Pitt that’s going to put a guy like Toney on him and be in his jersey all night,” Mack said. “If he takes errant shots and he goes five of 23 because he’s trying to get his average, then we’re not as good of a team.”

The (short) rotation

At times this season, Pitt has had limited options when it has come to filling out lineups and setting a rotation. Injuries have played a part in that, whether it was Kene Chukwuka (who has missed every game recovering from offseason hip surgery), Gerald Drumgoole (eight games missed with an ankle injury) or Toney (two games missed with an elbow injury).

With each of their nine players averaging at least 8.7 minutes per game healthy and available, though, the Panthers used only seven players in Tuesday’s loss, as Drumgoole and freshman forward Abdoul Karim Coulibaly both didn’t see the court.

It was the second time in the past two games that has happened after it occurred only once in the first 15 games.

Playing its second game in 48 hours, the first of which took place more than 1,000 miles away, Capel said fatigue didn’t play a factor in the loss, even in a game in which Pitt fell apart late.

“Those guys deserved to play,” Capel said of using only seven players.