The Duke Basketball team pulled off the comeback of the season, coming from 23 down in the second half to beat the Louisville Cardinals.
I wish I knew what to say right now.
I’m at a loss of words, but I’m going to find a way to describe what happened at the KFC Yum! Center on Tuesday night.
For the first 30 minutes of this Super Tuesday match-up, the Louisville Cardinals ate the Blue Devils up, took its lunch money, and then spit it out at them.
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Somehow, someway, a switch flipped in the Blue Devils huddle and Duke came out with a head of steam and energy and the Cards heard the footsteps of the big bad Blue Devils and ran away as fast as they could.
Zion Williamson played the final 9:41 with four fouls.
He did not foul out.
Duke trailed by 23 points with 9:13 left in the second half.
They won. In regulation.
Williamson led they way with 27 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, and a block. He was just about the only Blue Devil that was efficient from the field, making nine of his fifteen shots, but like most of the other players, struggled from three, only making one of four.
Like everyone else, Cam Reddish struggled for 30 minutes, but he was huge in the final 10 minutes, hitting the game winning free throws with under 20 seconds left.
Reddish finished with 22 points, three rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.
R.J. Barrett just didn’t have it going tonight, only with 13 points, but he did finish with seven rebounds, four assists, and a steal.
Aside from Duke’s big three, the only other points came by six of Tre Jones, two from Marques Bolden, and one from Javin DeLaurier.
However, nothing is going to stand out in the box score, but the player who was on the floor with the four freshman during the comeback was Jordan Goldwire.
Goldwire played the best game of his Duke career, yet only accumulating two rebounds, assists, and steals in Tuesday’s game.
The sophomore was relentless on defense and used his quickness and toughness to aid Tre Jones in a full court press in the final minutes.
Goldwire was there to contest the final shot of the game, anytime there was chaos on the Louisville side of the floor late in the second half, Goldwire seemed to be in the middle of it and he changed the course of the game.
This was the largest second half deficit Duke had to overcome since the 1950-51 season and the largest comeback victory under Coach K, and this team did it on the road against a Top-20 team.
While there is still much to write about this Blue Devil team and what the future may hold, fans should cherish these last few weeks, and hopefully months, because a team like this may never happen again.
The win moves Duke to 22-2 overall and further into sole possession of first place in the ACC at 10-1.
I’m not sure how Louisville can respond to this loss, but the Cards drop to 17-8 overall and 8-4 in the ACC.
Duke will host NC State on Saturday evening while Louisville hosts Clemson on Saturday afternoon.