Sometimes the mark of a good team is how you respond when things aren’t optimal. For Duke, it wasn’t optimal to be minus an important cog in their success but its situation they’ve been in many times this season. Next man up. Enter Louisville, sure they’ve been the punching bag of the league for the better part of 2 seasons they are a much improved team from last year. Focusing on records never won anyone a basketball game and this very well could have been a trap game for Duke and the way the first half went in terms of turnovers it could have gone a bit haywire but another mark of a good team is how you finish. Duke despite their 10 first half turnovers, still managed to shoot 54% from the field and 50% from 3. The Blue Devlis in that half on the strength of that hot shooting and their defense – which held Louisville to just 29% from the field and 1-11 from beyond the arc – build a 13 point lead.
The second half saw the Blue Devils go on a 7-2 run but couldn’t shake the Cards. The teams traded buckets which seemed to perturb Coach Jon Scheyer who called timeout with 12 minutes left in the game to lay down the law to his Devils who despite being up 14 seemed to be simply going through the motions defensively. After the timeout the Devils went on a 16-6 run to put the game out of reach. The Blue Devils cruised to an 84-59 victory over the Cardinals. Rebounds were big for the Blue Devils who out rebounded the Cardinals 43-24. 13 of Dukes rebounds were offensive leading to 12 second chance points.
Senior Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 19 points going 8-11 from the field and 3-4 from distance. Roach also had 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Mark Mitchell also had an efficient night for the Blue Devils going 7-10 from the field and hitting his only 3-point shot, scoring 17 points and gathering 7 boards. Freshman Jared McCain also scored in double-figures for the Blue Devils hitting 4-7 from 3-point range and scoring 14 points. Kyle Filipowski did not score in double figures for Duke but did contribute in other ways including 6 assists and 10 rebounds. Tyrese Proctor lead the Blue Devils with 7 assists. Sean Stewart in 11 minutes for the Blue Devils scored 9 points, going 3-3 from the field and pulling down 9 rebounds.
