71 - 64 The 2015-16 Louisville basketball team won't have many chances to make memories in March, but their performance on a late Saturday in February is one that will stick with their fan base for years to come.
Down by as many as 13 in the second half, the Cardinals closed the game on a 30-12 run to snap Duke's five-game winning streak with a 71-64 victory at the KFC Yum Center. Damion Lee hit three 3-pointers during U of L's stretch run and finished with a game-high 24 points. Chianu Onuaku added yet another double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
He did not, however, get to add two more after Duke's Greyson Allen was hit with a technical for arguing his 5th foul call.
Pitino told Onuaku to take the technical FTs. Onuaku said, "I got it." Pitino: "Nanu. I'm joking."
— Jeff Greer (@jeffgreer_cj) February 20, 2016
Allen finished with a game-high 29 points, but it wasn't enough for a Duke team which led 44-31 at the 17:05 mark of the second half.
While Lee was the star of stars for the Cardinals, Louisville fans got their first real look at what Deng Adel might be capable of in the future. The freshman made his fourth start of the season and finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists. He also played a large part in Duke freshman star Brandon Ingram turning the ball over 10 times.
The ACC regular season title dream is still alive for Louisville, but even that feels secondary right now to the 2-hour distraction this team was able to give us with their performance against the defending national champions. We'll all come back down to earth a bit (to various degrees) as the weekend goes along, but as more time passes, I think it will become increasingly apparent just how special this group is and just how impressive the performance they gave on Feb. 20 was.
