Russ Smith scored a game-high 16 points as No. 2 Louisville held off Northern Iowa, 51-46, at the Battle 4 Atlantis at Imperial Arena.

Smith added five rebounds, five assists and four steals, while Gorgui Dieng finished with six points and nine boards for the Cardinals (4-0), who will face No. 13 Missouri in the semifinals on Friday.

Marc Sonnen paced Northern Iowa (3-1) with 11 points and Jake Koch netted 10 in the Panthers' first loss of the season.

After Anthony James opened the second half with a jumper, Louisville reeled off 14 unanswered points to jump out to a seemingly comfortable 40-22 advantage.

Northern Iowa was held without a basket for over 10 minutes during that span until Nate Buss snapped the drought with a little over nine minutes remaining in the game, sparking an 20-4 run as Louisville's offense went cold to make it a 44-42 contest with 3:25 left on Deon Mitchell's three-point play.

It remained a one-possession game from there until James missed a game-tying 3-pointer with about a minute left and Smith's three-point play two possessions later put the Cardinals on top, 51-46, with six seconds to go.

The Panthers failed to get off a shot on their ensuing possession as Koch's turnover sealed the victory for Louisville.

It was a one-possession game over the first four-plus minutes of action until Smith netted six straight points in an 8-0 spurt to give Louisville a 13-6 lead.

The Panthers answered with an 11-2 run to retake a 17-15 edge, but the Cardinals closed out the first half with an 11-3 push to take a 26-20 lead into the break.

Game Notes