After falling into a 12-point hole early, Duke flew ahead to grab a commanding win over Louisville on the road on Tuesday night
Cameron Boozer and the Blue Devils didn’t make it easy on Tuesday night, but they are headed home still perfect in ACC play.
No. 6 Duke rallied from a 12-point deficit in the first half, which marked the team’s largest of the season to date, to beat No. 20 Louisville 84-73 on Tuesday at the KFC Yum! Center. That got the Blue Devils to 14-1 on the season and maintained their early lead in the conference standings.
Louisville led the entire first half, and even jumped out to a 12-point lead. That was Duke’s largest deficit of the season so far, two points more than what they faced against Lipscomb last month before rallying for that win. They led nearly the entire way in their loss to Texas Tech, too, before slipping at the end in a one-point loss — their only loss of the year.
The Cardinals took a nine-point lead into the break on Tuesday night, too, thanks to 16 first-half points from Ryan Conwell and 10 made 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes as a group. It was Boozer who kept Duke in it early. He shot a near-perfect 6-of-7 from the field in the first half, doubling up what the rest of the Blue Devils shot from the field combined.
But Duke finally took off. The Blue Devils opened the second half on a long 14-6 run to get within a single point, and then finally took their first lead of the night after a pair of Boozer free throws.
By then, Louisville largely shut down from beyond the arc — and that allowed Duke to finally surge ahead for good. Duke quickly pushed ahead to an 11-point lead over the next several minutes while allowing just one made 3-pointer in 14 attempts. From there, the Blue Devils rolled to an easy win. Their double-digit deficit was long behind them. In total, Duke outscored Louisville by 20 in the second half to grab the win.
Boozer finished with 27 points and eight rebounds, and ended up shooting 10-of-12 from the field in the win for the Blue Devils. Isaiah Evans finished with 23 points, and Caleb Foster finished with 20 points after he went 9-of-13 from the field. The Blue Devils shot 51% from the field despite making just seven 3-pointers as a group. Duke entered the game after narrow wins against both Georgia Tech and Florida State to open conference play. That came after their loss to the Red Raiders, too.
Conwell led Louisville with 24 points and seven rebounds. Aly Khalifa added 14 points off the bench, and Adrian Wooley finished with 11 points. The Cardinals were without star guard Mikel Brown Jr. Brown has now missed five straight games with a lower back injury, and was ruled out of the contest ahead of time. Brown has averaged 16.6 points and 5.1 assists in 10 games this season. They now sit at 11-4 on the season, and just 1-2 in conference play.
While they may have gotten out to another slow start, the Blue Devils team that showed up in the second half on Tuesday night should have more than erased any doubts about their status in the ACC.
This post will be updated with more information shortly.
Category: General Sports
