By Derek DeBurger

Louisville’s hot start wasn’t enough to give them the win against the No. 9 Duke Blue Devils.

The loss is eerily similar in many ways to the home-less to a Zion Williamson-led Duke team in Chris Mack’s first season as coach.

That loss ruined the momentum for the once-promising 2018-19 season.

We’re still standing

With a buzz in the air in spite of the injury bug that has gotten ahold of the Cards, Louisville came out of the gates on fire.

Duke took the first points of the game, but the Cards showed what a Pat Kelsey offense can look like by taking and nailing almost every three-pointer they put up. Louisville made eight of their first 11 attempts from deep to open the game on a 10-3 run.

After a timeout to settle things down, Duke’s offense was able to get going. However, nearly every shot they made Louisville matched it with a three of their own to push the lead up one point on each pair of possessions.

The Cards got up by as much as 14 points in the first half, with Reyne Smith looking like the best shooter in the world.

Duke also got into foul trouble early, with star Cooper Flagg and Tyrese Proctor picking up two fouls each in the first, and Caleb Foster fouled out of the half with three fouls.

Things began to shift when the Cards started giving up the ball. Louisville turned the ball over 10 times in the first half leading to 13 points off turnovers for Duke.

The turnovers led to a scoring drought to end the final three minutes of the half, but the lead was big enough to hold.

Louisville led 37-33 at the break.

Hold me closer tiny Cardinals

After a monster shooting performance from the team in the first, the Blue Devils honed in on the perimeter in the second half.

Instead of forcing shots, Louisville simply took what Duke gave them and drove to the paint. This caused Duke to rack up fouls and fast, reaching the double-bonus with around eight minutes left in the game.

Khani Rooths in particular took advantage of the added aggression, slashing and drawing fouls. Whenever the defense tried to adjust, he would shoot the threes that they would give him, making some.

Flagg picked up his fourth foul on a drive from Terrence Edwards Jr., keeping him out of the game for much of the second half. With a five-point lead and the star-player on the bench, things looked great for Louisville.

But it did not look that way for long as the Cardinals on the court did not know how to switch up their defensive strategy without Flagg to guard. The result was Kon Knueppel taking over the game, and two possessions where miscommunications led to no one picking up a wide open ballhandler.

Duke went on an 18-2 run with Flagg on the bench, and the Cards found themselves down 11 after leading almost the entire game.

Once Louisville got down, they were forced into threes that the Duke defense was ready for, and the hit rate plummeted. The Cards hit just 3-of-16 threes in the second half.

The run was too much for a depleted Cards team to handle.

Louisville lost 65-76.

I think it’s going to be a long, long time

The loss is demoralizing because of how it happened, but the effort level throughout and the performance for over 75% of the game are encouraging.

Louisville fans thought the season might be over and the goal of making the NCAA tournament out the window after the injury news of Kasean Pryor and Koren Johnson. However, the Cards showed that they are not only still fighting, but can keep up with the elite teams in the country.

In the five halves Louisville has played without Pryor and Johnson, they’ve been outscored in three halves but outscored opponents in two.

The season is not over, the dreams of dancing in March are still alive, but time is running out.

Louisville falls to 5-4 on the season and 0-1 in the ACC.

Photo Courtesy // Tre Jones, Louisville Athletics