The Cardinals of Louisville, despite their atrocious record, have seemed to turn a corner in their play on the court and how they’ve been responding to head coach Kenny Payne. Coach Scheyer and Payne probably inherited the toughest situations in college basketball coming into the season. Payne had to replace a plethora of pieces and with NCAA investigations looming the task was made much more difficult. It’s hard to acquire talent in the NCAA’s version of free agency when you aren’t even sure you’ll be able to play in the post season. Payne did what he could and of course the record speaks for itself but this past week the Cardinals nearly beat the best team in the ACC and did beat Clemson. Duke had their work cut out for them.
The Blue Devils fell behind early 18-9 to the fiesty Cardinals as El Ellis, a Durham native, hit on his first three 3-point shots – it looked like the Cardinals had things figured out. The Blue Devils wouldn’t take too long to respond. A 13 to 0 run would put the Devils back up 22-18 a lead that they would extend to 9 points at the half. Mark Mitchell and Dereck Lively led he way for the Blue Devils in the first half with Mitchell being the first Blue Devil to reach double-figures after a three-point play gave the freshman 11 first-half points on 4-of-6 shooting. Lively scored 9 of his eventual 10 points in the first half going 3-5 from the field and 3-4 from the line.
The second half saw Duke hit on a quick 7-2 spurt but the Cardinals would eventually battle back and the teams traded buckets for the first few minutes of the second half. Jacob Grandison hit his third three-pointer of the game opening up a 17-point lead for Duke, its largest of the game, 59-42, with 13:41 remaining. Louisville responded by cutting the lead to 10, 61-51, with just under 10 minutes on the clock. Louisville continued to remain within striking distance, but never managed to get the lead into single-digits as Duke closed out the 79-62 victory.
Junior guard Jeremy Roach would lead the Blue Devils in scoring with 14 hitting some clutch baskets in the second half to keep the pressure on Louisville. Roach finished with 6-9 shooting and dished 6 assists to lead Duke. Mark Mitchell and Kyle Filipowski each notched 13 points on 5-8 and 5-7 shooting respectively. Tyrese Proctor and Dereck Lively round out the double-figure scoring for Duke. Proctor hit on 4-8 from beyond the arc and also dished 3 assists. Lively ended 3-5 from the field and 4-6 from the line for his 10 point effort, he also added 2 blocks – tying Ryan Young for most of the night. Jacob Grandison did not score in double figures but went 3-5 from the 3-point line, hitting timely shots when Duke needed to push the lead.
The win maintains Duke’s unbeaten record at home and moves them to 14-0, 20-8 overall and 11-6 in the conference. The win also secures the Blue Devils a bye in the ACC Tournament and leaves a double bye still in play.
