Blue Devils close it out: 3 takeaways from Duke's ACC road win at Louisville

Steve Wiseman, The News & Observer on Dec 8, 2024

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The box score shows, as usual, that Cooper Flagg led No. 9 Duke in scoring and the Blue Devils posted a win in their first ACC game of the season on Sunday night.

A deeper look explains why this Duke win is not like many of the others this season.

The Blue Devils trailed for all but a few seconds of the game’s first 30 minutes, once by as many as 14 points.

Plus, in a plot twist, it took the foul-plagued Flagg hitting the bench midway through the second half for Duke to unleash an 18-2 run that finally allowed it to overcome Louisville and post a 76-65 win at KFC Yum! Center.

The 6-9 Flagg, a freshman and highly touted NBA prospect, produced his usual solid stat line with 20 points and 12 rebounds while not committing a turnover. But, when he picked up his fourth foul with 10:36 to play, Louisville held a 55-50 lead.

But Flagg’s roommate, freshman guard Kon Knueppel, drilled a 3-pointer on Duke’s next possession to start a 7-0 run that gave Duke its first lead since the first half. Sion James added a dunk and two free throws, giving the Blue Devils a 57-55 lead.

Louisville’s Reyne Smith’s tip-in tied the game on final time at 57-all. But Knueppel’s pass set up a Maliq Brown basket inside and Duke never trailed again. Brown added a dunk on Duke’s next possession before Tyrese Proctor scored on a driving shot. Another Brown slam dunk and a Knueppel 3-pointer with 5:42 to play completed an 11-0 Duke run that gave the Blue Devils a 68-57 lead.

Proctor finished with 13 points while Knueppel had 12 and James 11 for the Blue Devils (7-2, 1-0 ACC).

Louisville (5-4,0-1 ACC) shot just 37.3% and turned the ball over 15 times.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Cards shot lights-out early, but ...

Louisville entered the game having made 27.3% of its 3-pointers this season, among the nation’s worst, while Duke was among the nation’s toughest to make a 3-pointer against (29.2%).

So of course the Cardinals spent the game’s first 12 minutes making 8 of their first 11 from behind the arc, part of a sizzling 10 of 14 start from the field that propelled Louisville to a 30-16 lead.

When the Cards inevitably cooled off, Duke cut into its deficit. Louisville missed its final five 3-pointers of the half, and hit just one of its final 11 shots overall during that time, and led 37-33 at intermission.

At that point, Duke had only its own shooting issues to blame for not overtaking the Cards.

The Blue Devils hit only 3 of their first 12 shots after halftime, including 1 of 7 3-pointers. Louisville’s overall shooting was down to 44% for the game by then, but the Cards still held a 49-42 lead.

But the Blue Devils finally found their shooting stroke and Louisville could never regain its super-heated shooting from the game’s early minutes.

Duke exploited depth advantage

Injuries have cut Louisville’s available scholarship players to just eight, so Cardinals coach Pat Kelsey uses just two players off the bench. Since Duke coach Jon Scheyer has four reserves he uses regularly, the Blue Devils had the depth advantage.

In the game’s first eight minutes, even while the Cardinals were shooting at an unusually high percentage, Scheyer had used three players off the bench before the game was four minutes old and four reserves before it was eight minutes old.

Louisville ended the first half with 6-11 center Noah Waterman saddled with three fouls while 6-6 guard J’Vonne Hadley and 6-10 forward James Scott had two each.

The plan, of course, was for the Blue Devils to be in better position in the game’s final stages to make plays needed to win.

That certainly played out as, after Louisville led 49-42 as the game clock ticked below 13 minutes to play, Duke hit nine consecutive shots, and 11 of 12 over an extended stretch, to overtake the Cardinals.

Louisville’s 30.8% shooting in the second half displayed the fatigue that set in.

Duke’s rebounding wasn’t its best

With Louisville having lost 6-10 center Kasean Pryor for the season due to a torn ACL, Duke was in prime position to have a big advantage inside, particularly with rebounds.

But the Cardinals proved more adept for most of the game, holding a 21-14 edge at halftime as all seven of the Louisville players who saw action grabbed at least one rebound. As the game wore on, Duke slowly closed the gap. That’s another example of the depth advantage the Blue Devils had in addition to them being the taller team.

Duke finished the game with a 35-34 rebounding edge, thanks to Flagg’s 12 and 11 from Brown.

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