- Terrence Edwards Jr. led all scorers with 29 points for Louisville.
- Duke played without star freshman Cooper Flagg, who was injured in the quarterfinals.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Terrence Edwards Jr.’s eyes widened. His jaw dropped.
“Whaaat?”
Sitting at his locker early Saturday, he was informed that Louisville basketball had never advanced to the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament until this roller coaster of a week at the Spectrum Center.
“Are you serious?”
You know what they say about ignorance. But the day did not end in sweet, historic bliss for Pat Kelsey’s team — despite a Herculean effort from Edwards. Instead, the No. 13 Cardinals caught a bad case of déjà vu – letting
Duke
slip off the ropes for a second time this season, this time as the country’s consensus No. 1, and falling 73-62 in the conference championship game.
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Behind Edwards’ game-high 15 points during the opening 20 minutes, U of L took a 38-33 lead into the locker room — one more than its 37-33 edge when these teams first met back on Dec. 8 at the KFC Yum! Center; only to have freshman phenom Cooper Flagg go for 13 points and nine rebounds during the second stanza to lead the Blue Devils back from what was at its largest a 14-point deficit to a 76-65 victory.
After dropping a team-high 21 on Clemson in the semifinal round, Edwards said the “taste” of that loss stuck with him.
“The execution part late in the game — getting stops,” he added. “We were up (by) double figures on our home floor — probably close to (being) sold out.”
And that’s what cost the Cards again.
Duke took control with a 12-0 run, the longest of what started as a scintillating affair featuring eight lead changes during the first half, to turn a one-point hole into a 10-point cushion, 57-47, entering the final 11:08 of regulation. Louisville could get no closer than eight the rest of the way.
The Blue Devils shot 44% from the floor, 37% (10 for 27) from 3-point range — a major improvement from their 8-for-30 clip back in December — and limited U of L to 24 points during the final 20 minutes. And they did this without Flagg, the ACC’s Player and Rookie of the Year, who went down with an ankle injury during Thursday’s quarterfinal round.
Edwards, for the fifth game in a row, led the Cards in scoring with a game-high 29 points. He accounted for 12 of the team’s 25 made baskets, grabbed six rebounds and tied Chucky Hepburn for the team lead in assists with three.
Hepburn was Louisville’s only other double-digit scorer with 14. Seven of those points came during the opening 5:44; then he couldn’t get a bucket to fall until 52 seconds remained in the half.
This story will be updated.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.
