Blue Devils cross hurdle of short turnaround

DURHAM – The solution of the two-day turnaround proved elusive twice for Duke in ACC play.

Consider it solved, with the Blue Devils winning 79-62 over Louisville on Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“Third time’s the charm,” freshman Kyle Filipowski said of winning two ACC games in a three-day span. “We’ve been put in some tough situations with these two-games-in-three-days on the weekends.

“But I think we’ve done enough learning with losses. It’s time to come together and say, ‘Enough’s enough.’”

The calendar has plenty to do with that.

Duke (20-8, 11-6 ACC) has three regular-season games left; home games against two teams that beat the Blue Devils earlier in the season (Virginia Tech and N.C. State) and then a trip to Chapel Hill. And then it’s nothing but tournament basketball, which doesn’t offer much leeway for teams that struggle with short preparations.

“I just think there’s an incredible amount of value in going through the year that we’ve had,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “Going through the non-conference schedule we had, the early road games in the ACC, it’s prepared us to handle those moments.”

Certain aspects — most obviously, the final margin — looked better for Duke in Saturday’s dismantling of Syracuse than they did against Louisville (4-24, 2-15).

It wound up being Duke’s maturity that mattered most against this Cardinals team that yes, is the worst team in the ACC by metrics and in the standings — but also that beat a Clemson team that’s a half-game ahead of Duke in the standings on Saturday.

“I’ve love to stand here and say if they’d lost, we’d still have that sense of urgency,” grad transfer Ryan Young said. “But something like that happens naturally … you feel a little more sense of urgency. They had Virginia down the wire, they played Virginia tough.”

This thing wasn’t put to rest until the last couple of minutes, which is both a credit to Louisville and a criticism of Duke — both can be true.

Louisville scored 18 points on its first 11 possessions. It’s not like you expected the Cardinals to maintain a 1.64 points per possession pace for an entire game — but that was an inauspicious start for a Duke team that lost at Virginia Tech and was blown out at Miami in its other two Monday night games during ACC play.

There wasn’t panic, though, for the Blue Devils — who had a lead 2½ minutes after finding themselves down 18-9.

“We didn’t want another episode of the V-Tech game,” captain Jeremy Roach said. “We’ve been here before, we’ve been down nine, 10. We’ve just gotta string together some stops, string together buckets.”

Duke’s lead was 42-33 at halftime and the margin reached 14 quickly in the second half, and hit 17 in the first seven minutes. But Louisville hung around, never quite threatening the lead but never quite allowing the Blue Devils to exhale until the last couple of minutes.

El Ellis scored 21 points and had seven assists, helping Louisville stretch the drama of this game out.

Duke got rolling with a 13-0 run that included two 3s by Jacob Grandison — one from each corner — and a 3-pointer by Tyrese Proctor.

Proctor made another 3 after Louisville halted its scoreless streak — the Cardinals had seven empty possessions during Duke’s surge — and that meant all four of Duke’s first-half 3s came in a span of about 4½ minutes.

Duke only had six turnovers, giving the Blue Devils a combined 10 with the second half against Syracuse on Saturday after committing 10 in the first half against the Orange.

“When you turn the ball over, it’s a huge difference” between winning and losing, Scheyer said. “Really proud of … the last three halves. … That’s a trend that I hope we continue to see.”

Every Duke starter scored in double figures, led by Roach’s 14 points. Mark Mitchell’s 13 points were his most since he had 14 at Boston College on Jan. 7, and was a continuation of the confidence he seemingly picked up during the second half of last week’s game against Notre Dame.

Filipowski, fresh off being named the ACC’s rookie of the week for the eighth time this season, had 13 points and a team-best seven rebounds. He had four points in the first half and scored all nine of his second-half points in the first five minutes of the second half.

Dereck Lively II scored seven of his 10 points in the first eight minutes, when the rest of the Blue Devils were struggling offensively.

And Proctor finished with 12 points, all coming on his 4-for-8 clip from long range.

TIP-INS: C.B. Claiborne, the first Black men’s basketball player in Duke history, was honored during the under-12 media timeout of the first half. Duke wore warmup shirts with his name and number (23) for the game. … All eight Duke players who took the court recorded at least one assist, led by Roach’s six. The Blue Devils had 19 assists on 29 buckets, and have had 57 assists on 84 baskets in their last three games (all wins). … Each of those eight players also had at least one rebound. … For only the third game in his career (87 games), Roach didn’t attempt a 3-point shot. His six assists were the most he’s had since the second game of the season, when he had eight.