Duke falls to Louisville in overtime

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 28, 2021

DURHAM (AP) — Carlik Jones scored seven of his 25 points in overtime, sophomore Quinn Slazinski opened the scoring in OT with a 3-pointer and Louisville fended off Duke 80-73 on Saturday night, halting the Blue Devils’ late-season win streak at four games.

Jones, a graduate transfer from Radford, scored 24 points when Louisville defeated Duke 70-65 on Jan. 23 — making this the first regular-season sweep for the Cardinals against the Blue Devils.

Jae’Lyn Withers scored 16 points with nine rebounds for Louisville while Samuell Williamson scored 14 with 12 rebounds.

Matthew Hurt led the Blue Devils with a career-high 37 points — tying the most points by a Duke player in the last 15 seasons (Grayson Allen 2017).

Wendell Moore Jr., who scored 13 points, made four straight free throws in the final 1:20 of regulation to give Duke a 65-64 lead with 36.9 seconds left. Jones was fouled on a drive in the lane at 13.5, and made 1 of 2 free throws to tie it before Withers secured the offensive rebound. Jones had another attempt to win it, but his pull-up jumper was off the mark.

The Cardinals (13-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) never trailed in overtime.

After Louisville took a 40-28 lead early in the second half, Hurt scored 13 points in a nearly seven minute span as Duke grabbed a 53-52 lead. Williamson wrapped back-to-back layups — each on an assist from Jones — around a Hurt basket as the Cardinals led 58-57.

Duke (11-9, 9-7) still leads the overall series with Louisville, 10-9, but the Cardinals have won three straight. Hurt has been on a late-season tear, entering Saturday’s game averaging 20.8 points during Duke’s four-game win streak.

Duke visits Georgia Tech on Tuesday before hosting rival North Carolina on Saturday.