Two wins down. Duke advances to ACC tournament quarterfinals after beating Louisville.
Duke rode a monster performance from Mark Williams into the ACC tournament quarterfinals.
A 7-0 freshman center, Williams scored 23 points with 19 rebounds leading the No. 10 seed Blue Devils to a 70-56 win over No. 7 seed Louisville Wednesday night in an ACC tournament second-round game.
Having won twice over the tournament’s first two days, Duke (13-11) advances to meet No. 2 seed Florida State (15-5) on Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.
Sophomore forward Matthew Hurt scored 20 points for Duke but even he was impressed by what his younger teammate accomplished.
“He was big-time,” Hurt said of Williams during the postgame press conference. “I’m so proud of him, our teammates are so proud of him, but he knows tomorrow that it’s going to be a big game.”
The Blue Devils avenged their two regular-season losses to the Cardinals (13-7) by shooting 54.2% in the second half to pull away after leading 30-29 at halftime.
Louisville struggled offensively, shooting just 30.6%, including a frigid 24.2% in the second half.
“Our half-court defense was excellent the entire night,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Carlik Jones, Louisville’s first-team, all-ACC guard, scored 13 points but did so on 5 of 14 shooting from the field. David Johnson (14 points) was the Cardinals’ only other double-figures scorer.
On this night, they didn’t measure up to Duke’s tandem of Hurt and Williams.
Williams fell one rebound shy of becoming just the second Duke player to record 20 rebounds in an ACC tournament game. Art Heyman did it against Clemson in 1962.
Hurt and Williams were the only double-figure scorers for the Blue Devils against Louisville. Duke was able to win without getting any points from its reserves.
Second half update
Louisville started the second half like it did the first -- shooting poorly from the field -- and making only 4 of its first 21 shots. That, combined with Duke hitting seven of its first eight shots (including three 3-pointers) of the half, allowed Duke to lead by as many as 13 points.
With 7:46 to play, Duke’s lead is 55-47 over the Cardinals.
Freshman center Mark Williams scored 17 points with 14 rebounds to help Duke build that lead. Matthew Hurt tallied a game-high 18 points for the Blue Devils.
Halftime update
Dueling runs from either side marked the end of the first half as Duke took a 30-29 lead over Louisville after 20 minutes of play.
Duke, which led for most of the first half, scored 10 consecutive points from 7:22 to 3:50 to build a 27-13 lead.
But in seemingly the blink of an eye, Louisville reeled off 16 consecutive points beginning at the 3:42 mark. Three-pointers from Carlik Jones and David Johnson highlight the spurt and Josh Nickelberry’s two free throws with 47.3 seconds left in the half gave Louisville just its second lead of the game at 29-27.
Duke Sophomore forward Matthew Hurt drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner, just in front of the Cardinals’ bench, with 37 seconds left in the half giving the Blue Devils their one-point halftime lead.
Hurt led Duke with 13 points in the first half while freshman center Mark Williams produced eight points and nine rebounds. The Blue Devils shot 38.2 percent, hitting only 3 of 10 3-pointers.
Louisville started 2 of 13 from the floor to fall behind but heated up late to finish the first half shooting 37.9% (11 of 29) while going 2 of 8 on 3-pointers.
Jones scored nine points to lead the Cardinals.
First half update
Duke’s defense bottled Louisville up early, allowing the Blue Devils to lead by as many as six points and hold a 15-13 lead with 7:54 left in the first half.
The Blue Devils are switching men all over the court on defense, preventing Louisville from finding open driving lanes to the basket. The Cardinals hit just 2 of their first 13 shots, missing eight in a row during one stretch, to allow Duke to lead 11-5.
The Blue Devils failed to take full advantage of that Louisville cold stretch, however, and the Cardinals scored on three consecutive possessions to tighten the score.
Matthew Hurt led Duke with five points while Mark Williams scored four. The Blue Devils hit just 7 of 21 shots over the first 12 minutes and six seconds of play.
Pregame update
Duke is using what’s become its usual starting lineup, which features freshmen guards DJ Steward and Jeremy Roach, sophomore forwards Wendell Moore and Matthew Hurt and freshman center Mark Williams. The Blue Devils have used this starting lineup in nine of their last 10 games. The only exception was senior night on Feb. 27 when senior guard Jordan Goldwire started in place of Roach.
This story was originally published March 10, 2021 at 6:31 PM.