Louisville Crumbles in Second Half, Falls to Duke

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball has just let a massive opportunity pass them up.

Hosting Duke for a ranked showdown with significant implications in the ACC, the Cardinals started fast only to fall flat on their face in crunch time, dropping an 84-73 decision to the Blue Devils on Tuesday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

No. 20 Louisville (11-4, 1-2 ACC) led by as much as 12 points just nine minutes in, as well as 47-38 at the break. However, things the proceeded to completely fall apart on both ends of the floor, resulting in No. 6 Duke (14-2, 3-0 ACC) outscoring UofL 46-26 in the second half

After starting the season at 7-0, Louisville has now dropped four of their last eight, and they also suffer their first home loss of the season. Meanwhile, Duke extends their winning streak against UofL to eight consecutive.

Louisville's Achilles Heel was on the defensive end and fouling. They allowed Duke to shooting 50.9 percent from the field despite a 7-of-23 showing on three-point attempts, as well as go 19-of-28 at the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Cardinals themselves shot it just 40.0 percent overall despite going 12-of-38 from deep, and were only 9-of-12 at the charity stripe.

Ryan Conwell scored a team-high 24 points for Louisville, while Aly Khalifa came off the bench for 17 points, and Adrian Wooley added 11 points in place of Mikel Brown Jr. Brown has has missed the last five games due to a lower back injury.

As for Duke, 70 of their points came from just three players. Cameron Boozer scored a game-high 27 points, Isaiah Evans added 23, while Caleb Foster finished with 20. No one else for the Blue Devils scored more than four points.

Unlike the Stanford game, where Louisville had a cold shooting night, they got off to a blazing hot start in this department against Duke. They hit 11 of their first 19 shots, including an 8-of-12 mark on three point tries, pulling out to a 26-14 lead in the first 11 minutes.

While the Cardinals did cool off some in the closing minutes of the first half, hitting only five of their final 15 field goal attempts, it didn't impact their defensive efforts. They held the Blue Devils to 12-of-33 for the first, half, and went into halftime holding a 47-38 lead.

However, the script completely flipped once the two teams returned from the break. All of a sudden, Louisville couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and Duke was the one who couldn't miss.

The Cardinals were just 10-of-31 overall and 2-of-17 on three point tries in the second half, while the Blue Devils were 17-of-24 and 2-of-6, respectively. Duke tied the game at the 13:36 mark of the half, then ballooned their lead to double digits by the 6:58 mark.

Next up, Louisville continues their three-game home stand with a matchup against Boston College. Tip-off against the Eagles is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10 at 12:00 p.m. EST.

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