The No. 21/22 Louisville men's basketball team closed out its undefeated month with a 72-59 win over Wake Forest on Tuesday at the KFC Yum! Center. This marks the first time since 2009 that the Cards have gone undefeated in the month of January.

"Wake (Forest) is a really good team," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "One of the best teams defensively in our conference, they are tough and physical. We knew that we had our work cut out for us. I thought our guys played 30-32 minutes, at times, as good of basketball that we have played all year. Defensively, I thought we were very good. We shared the ball. We had a good assist-to-turnover ratio. This team has a really good coach. I have known him for a very long time. At the press conference earlier in the week, I said we kind of came up through the business in kind of the same way. He was a Power 5 assistant and then was at East Tennessee State as a head coach. I was at Winthrop. We played some home and homes against them and every time we played it was a knock-down, drag out game. They are well-schooled and well-prepared. It makes it really tough and we were fortunate to come out with a win."

Terrence Edwards Jr. led all players in scoring with 18 points while Reyne Smith added on 16. Chucky Hepburn tallied 14 points and a game-high eight assists.

The Cards got off to a fast start, posting a 15-3 run that put Louisville up 26-11 midway through the first half. Edwards scored 13 points in the first frame, including three from beyond the arc.

Hepburn sealed the first half with a long three at the buzzer, giving the Cards a 45-21 lead at halftime, Louisville's largest halftime lead in an ACC game since 2019.

Louisville came out of the locker room on an 11-4 run which gave them their biggest lead of the game at 29 points. Wake Forest outscored the Cards 28-12 to close out the game.

Hunter Sallis led the Deacons with 13 total points shooting 75% from the three-point line before fouling out. Efton Reid tallied 11 points.

Louisville shot only 39.0% from the field and 30.6% from the three-point line but went 71.4% from the line. The Cards had the advantage with 17 assists compared to Wake Forest's 10. The Demon Deacons outrebounded Louisville 39-35 with help from Reid's game-high 13 rebounds.

The Cards will hit the road for their next ACC opponent when they visit Georgia Tech on Saturday, February 1 for a 3:45 p.m. game on The CW.