Louisville lost its fifth game in seven with an 82-56 defeat at Duke.
DURHAM, North Carolina — Grayson Allen scored 28 points and Wendell Carter added 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists as fifth-ranked Duke blasted Louisville, 82-56, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night.
It was Louisville's worst loss in conference play and its sixth loss in nine games. The Cards fell into a three-way tie with Florida State and Miami for seventh in the ACC.
"That's a heck of a basketball team," Louisville coach David Padgett said. "You can see why they were ranked No. 1 for the majority of the season. We didn't play very well tonight at either end of the court."
Louisville (18-10, 8-7 ACC) started well, with Deng Adel's jumper cutting Duke's lead to 16-15 with 11:14 left in the first half, but the Blue Devils' lead ballooned to 21 in the opening period, and they never looked back.
Duke (23-5, 11-4) made nine 3-pointers and dominated the glass. The Cards were just 23 of 64 from the field, with only Ray Spalding (17 points, 10 rebounds), Deng Adel and V.J. King (10 points) reaching double-figure scoring.
Pressure mounts: Louisville is not assured of an NCAA Tournament bid, and Padgett said on Tuesday that he spoke to his team about that. The discussion was broad — just a mention of where they were and what they needed to do the rest of the way — but Padgett deemed it time to start talking about the postseason with his team. That said, Louisville is facing fewer opportunities and a greater need for a win. It certainly makes things tougher that two of the final three games are on the road, and the third is against second-ranked Virginia.
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Deepening defensive struggles: The Cards' slide on defense continued at Duke. They were slow on rotations and too often out of position. On one possession in the first half, Padgett called out a switch in defense with about 15 seconds on the shot clock. Three Cards stood at the top of the key, guarding two Duke players. A third lingered on the perimeter and then sneaked into the lane for a dunk. Louisville's players all looked at each other, confused. The perimeter defense in particular is rapidly sliding this month: The Louisville opponents not named Pittsburgh are 39 of 95, or 37.9 percent, from 3-point range in February.
What's the solution? At this point, it's a personnel and coaching thing. Louisville doesn't have a ton of lateral quickness to defend opposing guards, and the coaching staff doesn't seem to have answers for that problem. Sometimes coaches can figure out ways to offset their team's weaknesses, but Padgett hasn't been able to do that in February.
Listless: It's hard to say Louisville lacked effort, because the Cards still hustled as the gap widened. But there was an energy canyon between Duke and Louisville. The Blue Devils were relentlessly pursuing offensive rebounds and lurking around the basket, and Louisville's defenders did little to bother them. The timeouts didn't help. The substitution pattern didn't help. Nothing worked. Louisville's bench was seemingly silent for much of the second half. There's no denying Duke and North Carolina are two of the best teams in the country, but Louisville's coaching staff is in danger of losing its team.
Louisville dropped its fifth loss in seven games with an 82-56 defeat Duke.
Shaky first half, again: Louisville ran into trouble in the first half after a solid start. It went from 16-15, Duke, to 42-21 in a hurry. The Cards lost their concentration on a few possessions, losing the ball with careless turnovers and then either giving up too much space on perimeter shooters or not finding a body to nudge or box out around the basket. Duke had seven first-half dunks and nine second-chance points. It was the second time in as many games that Louisville fell behind by at least 19 points in the opening period. It almost goes without saying, but that just can't happen against good teams.
Up next: Louisville will stay on the road and travel straight to Blacksburg, Virginia, on Thursday ahead of Saturday's 1 p.m. game at Virginia Tech. CBS will carry that broadcast nationally.
Jeff Greer: 502-582-4044; [email protected]; Twitter: @JeffGreer_CJ. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/jeffg.