By Harry Barsan

No. 20 Louisville fell to No.4 Duke in men’s basketball on Monday, Jan. 6. This loss is their second to Duke this season.

Close, but no cigar

The Cards kept afloat off the tip, answering a fiery Duke offense with some early buckets of their own. Duke kept a decent early lead of 13-6, though by the first timeout.

Louisville answered back with a few buckets from Adrian Wooley and Ryan Conwell, and soon enough, a fast-break dunk from Sananda Fru cut the deficit to two.

While this looked to change the pace, it would be the last bucket we’d see for a while. Turnover after miss after turnover, the Cards looked absolutely sloppy. It would be a whole seven minutes of in-game time before J’Vonne Hadley nailed a three.

As bad as this stretch was, the Cards locked down the explosive Duke offense. Louisville caused nearly a half-dozen turnovers during these seven minutes while only giving up a few scores.

The Cards jumped on the faulting Duke offence en route to four-straight buckets, eventually taking their first lead of the game at 25-24  off a Ryan Conwell three. Both teams sparred for the rest of the half before Duke got the best of the exchange, eventually scoring nine unanswered to end the half.

Not close, no cigar

While the Cards only gave an inch, Duke took a mile. The minor cracks by Louisville became a sinkhole in this half.

Duke expanded their lead to 16 early in the second. While the Cards responded with some fortunate threes by Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely, Duke was scoring on nearly every opportunity.

Mikel Brown Jr. finally landed his first field goal of the game, but the Blue Devils ruled the first ten of the half. Duke eventually took a lead of 60-41 before Pat Kelsey and the Cardinals were forced to take a time out.

Cameron Indoor Stadium might have the best atmosphere in all of college sports, and you certainly could sense it tonight. Cameron went crazy for every three, jumper and dunk. Duke turned the energy from the crowd into pace on the court and the Blue Devils were scoring at every given opportunity.

Unbothered however, Ryan Conwell did his thing putting up two late threes in attempt to make this game feel closer.

Duke continued to step on the gas, taking everything they could get. As Duke put in their backups, the lead grew to 30 and the Cards looked to escape with at least some of their pride intact.

The Cards fell by a final mark of 83-52.

Simply outclassed

Cam Boozer and a dangerous Duke offense can always be a problem, and tonight they definitely were.

A couple of the Cards had some real troubles tonight. Mikel Brown Jr., who returned from injury and looked stellar last game, struggled against a stout Duke defense. He made his first and only field goal with only about 13 minutes to go in the second, ending with seven points. After a fine first half, Hadley was held to just two points in the second.

While the rebound margin was relatively even in the first, it got out of hand in the second. Duke out-grabbed the Cards by a mark of 24-9 in the second. Factoring that in with a more than disappointing 28% second-half field goal percentage, this was a recipe for absolute disaster.

Duke outdid the Cards, through and through. If it’s any compensation, Ryan Conwell had himself a nice night with an efficient 18 points on 7-14 shooting. Besides Conwell’s performance, many of these players may wish to be amnesiac about tonight.

The Cards will look for a rebound on Saturday against 15-5 SMU at home.

Louisville falls to 14-6 and 4-4 in the conference.