For the third time in as many tries against Duke, Pat Kelsey’s Louisville Cardinals got off to a great start, held a solid lead at halftime, and then completely folded in the second half. U of L was outscored 46-26 in the second frame as the Blue Devils rolled to an 84-73 win Tuesday night […]
For the third time in as many tries against Duke, Pat Kelsey’s Louisville Cardinals got off to a great start, held a solid lead at halftime, and then completely folded in the second half.
U of L was outscored 46-26 in the second frame as the Blue Devils rolled to an 84-73 win Tuesday night inside the KFC Yum Center. The win was Duke’s eighth straight over the Cards.
After lighting it up from the outside in the first half, Louisville went just 2-for-17 from three in the second 20 minutes. Once the Blue Devils extended their pressure of U of L’s guards and denied Ryan Conwell the ball, the Cards seemed to have zero idea how to operate their offense. Conwell finished with a team-high 24 points, but 16 of those came in the first half.
Meanwhile, Duke’s Cameron Boozer spent the entire evening showing the rest of the country why he’s the runaway favorite at the season’s midway point for virtually every major national Player of the Year award. The freshman forward dominated on the inside and the outside, hitting 10-of-12 shots from the field on his way to a 27-point performance. He added 8 points and 4 assists for good measure.
Outside of Conwell, the biggest bright spot of the night for Louisville may have been Aly Khalifa. The reserve big man knocked down all five of his three-point attempts and finished with a season-high 17 points.
There are going to be lots of things said here locally about Pat Kelsey in the days to come, and I think many of them are likely going to be a bit over the top. There’s one thing that none of us can run from here though: Jon Scheyer has absolutely put PK in a body bag in three consecutive second halves. That’s discouraging.
Also discouraging? Louisville’s on-ball defense does not appear to be getting better over the course of the season the way it did a year ago. Mikel Brown Jr.‘s return can help with a lot of things. I’m not sure it can help with that.
All things considered, this feels like the most disheartening night of the season to date.
Gut-check time. Fork in the road. Fight or flight.
Whatever you want to call it, it certainly feels like we’ve reached that moment for this group of Cardinals.
Category: General Sports
