Louisville Starts Fast, Falls Behind and Can't Get Over Hump at Duke

DURHAM, N.C. - Traveling to face Duke on the heels of their upset win over Clemson, the Louisville men's basketball program was unable to carry that momentum from the KFC Yum! Center into Cameron Indoor Stadium, falling 79-62 Monday night.

The Cardinals (4-23, 2-15 ACC) were unable to establish back-to-back wins for just the second time this season, and suffer their first loss at Cameron Indoor since Feb. 21, 2018. Louisville had previously won two straight on the Blue Devils' (20-8, 11-6 ACC) home court.

Louisville couldn't match Duke's shooting, going 44.2 percent from the field to 49.2 percent from the Blue Devils, and lost the rebounding battle 33-28 - and 12-9 on the offensive glass. The Cardinals also turned the ball over 12 times, leading to 14 Duke points.

They were led primarily by a 21-point effort from guard El Ellis, who is a Durham, N.C. native. Forward J.J. Traynor also matched his career-high of 16 points that was set in the previous game against Clemson. They were the only Cardinals to break double figures, something that was accomplished by the entire Duke starting five.

Louisville clearly had an upset on their minds, as they got off to an incredible start to the game. The ball movement was efficient and decisive, the defensive effort was present, and Ellis was a man on a mission, scoring 11 points in the first five minutes as part of an 18-9 run in the first seven minutes.

But after that, it was almost all Duke. Louisville seemed to get tentative on offense, defense rotations remained abhorrent, and the Cardinals were dominated on the boards. This allowed the Blue Devils to fire off 13 straight points as part of an 18-2 run, fueled mostly by the three ball and poor Louisville shooting. After a 7-of-11 shooting start, the Cards went just 5-of-15 in the final 13 minutes of the half.

The Cardinals hit their last three shots of the half to keep it to a 42-33 deficit heading into the locker room, but that was mainly due to Duke's own misses. The Blue Devils shot 5-of-16 in the final six minutes of the half after opening up the half shooting 10-of-17.

While the Blue Devils used a 7-2 run in the first 90 seconds of the second half to go up 14, and led by as much as 17 at one point, Louisville didn't let Duke run away with it. The Cardinals got the deficit down to 10 points on six different occasions, and even held Duke scoreless over a 5:08 stretch, but just could not get over the hump.

It wasn't until the final segment that Duke felt comfortable with the game flow. In the final five and half minutes with the deficit still at 10, Louisville connected on just one of their final seven shots, whereas Duke ended on a 4-of-7 stretch and 7-0 run to end the game.

Next up, Louisville will stay on the road and head to Atlanta for a rematch with Georgia Tech. Tip-off against the Yellow Jackets is set for Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of El Ellis: Rob Kinnan - USA TODAY Sports)

You can follow Louisville Report for future coverage by liking us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram:

Facebook - @LouisvilleReport
Twitter - @UofLReport
Instagram - @louisville_report

You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at @Matt_McGavic on Twitter