A solid effort by both teams but Duke’s depth and defense prevailed
Duke came back to beat Louisville 76-65 on Sunday evening, but it was anything but an easy win.
Louisville started off unbelievably hot Sunday, hitting threes from all over. The Cardinals built a 14-point lead in the first half before the Blue Devils started defending better.
Duke clamped down on Louisville after the first ten minutes or so and the Cardinals only hit three shots in the last 8:36 of the first half. Terrence Edwards hit a three there and then he hit a two pointer with 5:32 to play. They did score four from the line but Duke’s defense really started to clamp down. The Blue Devils turned the ‘Ville over 10 times in the first half and the red-hot shooting, which was really off the charts, declined. By halftime, Louisville was shooting 44 percent overall and three point shooting fell to 50 percent. That might not sound that great, but that team was on fire early from behind the line, which was unusual since they’ve shot poorly from three point range over the season.
People will naturally pay a lot of attention to Louisville’s hot start, but they also rebounded well in the first half, beating Duke there 21-14, and their defense did very well against Duke in the half-court. It was transition basketball that got the Blue Devils back in the game and to halftime down just 37-33.
Sion James tied the game 55-55 on a powerful dunk and then, after Maliq Brown poked the ball loose, got to the line on a fast break drive where he put Duke back in the lead for the first time since the first minute of the game.
Duke had a 7-0 run after Cooper Flagg went out with four fouls.
Brown put Duke up by four on another fast break, 61-57 and then Tyrese Proctor hit a layup to put the Blue Devils up 63-57. All of this happened when Flagg was on the bench.
Brown got a dunk next to put Duke up 65-57, followed by a three from Kon Knueppel that put Duke up 68-57.
Louisville’s hot shooting had long since dried up at this point.
After a Cardinal basket, Flagg came back in and put Duke back up 70-60.
The last 4:27 was basically just doing the things you need to do to lock in a win. Duke played excellent defense down the stretch and Louisville, in fairness, was gassed. The injuries really have killed their depth. Nothing but respect for their effort though. It’s a program on the rise.
Notes - tons of respect for Louisville...they gave all they had...Kon Knueppel was a major factor in this one but quietly...Maliq Brown and Sion James were huge factors too...in the last few minutes, Flagg was relentless....that guy is a winner...After the hot start, Louisville finished at 36.7 percent on threes and 38 percent overall...ultimately Duke’s depth and defense just doomed Louisville...
