In a very entertaining game, Duke Men’s Basketballs 1000th at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke defends home court against the 13th ranked Louisville Cardinals 72-65. Duke was solid on the offensive end in the first half outscoring the Cardinals 35-24. Louisville, however, allowed the Duke defense to speed them up and confound them for the entirety of that half.
The second half saw Louisville figure out the Duke defense and string together a strong defensive stand. The Louisville zone took Duke out of its offense and often left them late in the shot clock not able to turn the corner to drive the basketball. Offensively the Cardinals turned it around, scoring 13 straight points while Duke went over 5 minutes without a bucket.
Just likes Duke’s previous game Duke went on runs and gave up runs. Louisville would eventually take the lead from Duke in the back and forth affair but Duke would eventually take the lead for good off the strength of its free throws.
Grayson Allen paced Duke with 19 points although minus one 3 pointer at the beginning of the second half he was scoreless in the second. Brandon Ingram scored 18 for Duke hitting 6 big free throws and pulling down 10 important rebounds. Ingram also had 4 assists to lead Duke. Matt Jones scored 8 for Duke but his major contribution was on the defensive end.
Duke was able to keep the Louisville starting guards in check for most of the game but enter Donovan Mitchell who scored 17 off the bench on 7 of 11 shooting. Trey Lewis added 11 and Damion Lee 10 for the Cardinals. Who were a couple of possessions from taking the game from Duke.
The win was significant because it’s the first win against a ranked opponent for Duke this season and as this team starts to build its resume to off-set the losses wins like this are crucial.
