By Russ Brown
NKyTribune correspondent
LOUISVILLE — Sandwiched between weekend concerts by Blake Shelton and Bruce Springsteen in the KFC Yum! Center, Louisville and Duke played a college basketball game Saturday afternoon, and the Cardinals put on quite a show for their boistrous 22,785 fans.
Like most concerts, the headliner was a little late getting started, but once the No. 18 Cards (21-6, 10-4) got rolling, they showed why they’re still a serious challenger for the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship heading into the final two weeks.
So on a day when Louisville celebrated the 30th anniversary of its 72-69 win over Duke for the 1986 national championship, the Cards got another win over the Blue Devils to enjoy, even if it wasn’t nearly as significant.
Charging back from a 13-point second-half deficit, UofL defeated No. 20 Duke (20-7, 9-5) 71-64 to end the Devils’ five-game winning streak, including three in a row against ranked teams, and gain a measure of revenge for a 72-65 loss in Cameron Indoor two weeks ago.
So now, UofL enters Wednesday night’s game at Pittsburgh (19-7, 8-6) trailing league-leading North Carolina (22-5, 11-3) by one game after the No. 5/4 Tar Heels clobbered No. 11/10 Miami (21-5, 10-4) 96-71 Saturday.
Louisville earned its latest victory, in large part, by using its superior depth to take advantage of the depleted visitors, who started the afternoon without injured guard Matt Jones, then lost another regular, guard Derryck Thornton, for crucial minutes down the stretch with a shoulder injury.
That left Duke with essentially five players, one of whom — Chris Jeter — had played an average of only 4.5 minutes in ACC contests.
Furthermore, Duke was coming off a mentally- and physically-draining, 74-73 upset of North Carolina Wednesday night in Chapel Hill, then had to hit the road again Friday for Derby City.
The fatigue factor of the Devils’ short bench finally caught up with them, as UofL coach Rick Pitino and his players duly noted. Duke wilted in the final 10 minutes against the Cards’ withering and physical man-to-man fullcourt pressure.
“That was an incredible performance by our players,” Pitino said. “We knew they had a very difficult game against North Carolina. We just wanted to keep applying the heat and wait for our run. We trapped intelligently, and when people wear down they make mistakes.”
Duke made a season-high 18 of them, nearly twice its season average, which UofL turned into 19 points.
“One thing we’ve learned from the past games we’ve won is that (the opponent) is bound to break, bound to get tired,” UofL guard Donovan Mitchell said. “It’s bound to happen. We didn’t want to get down 13, obviously, but we just waited it out. . .press, press, press. We had a lot of energy. We weren’t going to let them punk us on our homecourt, especially a team with only six players. We knew we could play our whole roster and still win the game.”
The hard-fought battle had the flavor and intensity of an NCAA Tournament game and it included three technical fouls — one on UofL’s Jaylen Johnson, one on Duke guard Grayson Allen and one on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who complained afterwards about the inconsistent officiating, saying it was unlike previous games this season.
Indeed, the Cards appeared to be particularly rough on Allen, who fouled out at the 3:55 mark with 29 points, and standout freshman forward Brandon Ingram, who committed 10 turnovers and hit just 3-of-10 shots to finish with eight points, nine below his average and his lowest total since getting five against Georgetown on Nov. 22. His turnovers equaled his total five games. Those two were bumped or pushed every time they handled the ball.
“I thought the physicality of the game caught up with us more than the physicality of the week,” Krzyzewski said. “That was the most physical second half we have been in this year and we weren’t able to respond at the appropriate level.”
Coach K got his technical when Allen was called for an offensive foul as he drove the baseline and tried to pass to a teammate. That was Allen’s fifth foul, and he then got a technical for protesting.
At the time Duke was trailing 65-59, but Allen had hit 8-of-12 shots, including 5-of-8 treys, and 8-of-9 free throws.
“Take a look at that play,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not close. Whatever close means, it’s not close. Look, he’s been beat up the whole season, and he’s a warrior.”
Krzyzewski was asked what he was arguing about when he got T-ed up.
“Do you want a list?” he said. “That will come out in my book when I’m 80.”
“They played their butts off,” Coach K added, referring to UofL. “They hit big shots, and they’re really good. I respect the hell out of them. They’re going to play the game the way they’re allowed to play it.”
Referring to the officiating, Krzyzewski called it “way inconsistent, adding that “you can forget about all those videos that were shown (explaining the rules). You’ve got to be kidding me. Don’t show those videos. Yes, it was inconsistent, but you’ve got to adapt, and we were not strong enough to adapt to a tough environment and a team that’s going after us like crazy.”
Duke seemed to have control of the game when it opened a 44-31 lead early in the second half, and the visitors were still on top by 12, 50-38, heading into the final 12 minutes. But then Pitino ordered a switch from a 2-3 matchup zone to a man-to-man defense and that proved to be the turning point.
“We weren’t communicating in our zone,” said freshman forward Deng Adel. “There were a lot of bredakdowns that led to a lot of wide open threes. But coach switched up to man and that helped a lot. We started pressing and just ate ’em up.”
Duke still led 54-45 with 10 1/2 minutes left after Marshall Plumlee’s dunk. But then UofL’s defense started taking its toll, with the Devils failing to get another field goal for eight minutes and committing seven turnovers in their next nine possessions.
“I really think we took their legs out, wore them down, and everything else just started to take care of itself,” said forward Damion Lee. “You could see it by the way they were playing. In the beginning they were moving the ball fast, making us rotate, but we knew they only had six players and it was just a matter of time before they would wear out.”
How did the Cards know that was happening?
“Frustration and their hands on their knees,” Mitchell said. “When you see that, it’s like you grin, get excited and it’s time to go. You could see their frustration.”
While Duke had five players on the court for 34 minutes or more, Pitino used nine — only three 31 minutes or more — and got solid contributions from nearly all of them.
Foremost was Lee, who had suffered a dislocated pinkie finger on his (non-shooting) left hand during a walk-through that morning, overcame a slow start to score 24 points, 19 of them in the second half when he hit 6-of-11 shots. He drilled three 3-pointers in a row in just over two minutes during the Cards rally and also finished with game-high four steals and just one turnover in 35 minutes.
“I’ve been through hand injuries before,” said Lee, the Drexel graduate transfer. “I played a whole game last year with a broken hand and got 30 points. I wanted to give it a go. I let adrenalin take over, and once that happened I really didn’t even think about it. At first I was favoring it, but then I basically said, ‘screw it.'”
Adel justified Pitino’s decision to start him for only the second time since mid-November by getting 12 points and five rebounds while also serving as the primary defender against Ingram, who managed only two points in the second half.
“Deng was terrific defensively as well as offensively,” Pitino said. “I thought he was terrific.”
Then there was center Chinanu Onuaku, who recorded his 10th double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, along with four blocks, and guard Trey Lewis, who chipped in eight points and a game-best five assists.
Louisville surged into the lead at 58-55 with 5:45 remaining on an 8-0 run fueled by Lee’s back-to-back treys. The Cards never lost the lead, but Thornton’s basket at 1:30 pulled Duke to within 66-64. Then UofL closed it out at the foul line, with Lee and Johnson combining to hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1:03.
“We’re one game away from potentially having the regular season ACC championship,” Lee said. “But we have to take it step by step. We have four games left. Next task is Pittsburgh.”