Duke’s momentum came to a screeching halt Saturday, as the Blue Devils fell to Louisville in overtime, 80-73. The loss breaks a four game winning streak and again puts Duke’s back to the wall in the fight for an NCAA Tournament berth.

The only message head coach Mike Krzyzewski can try and impress upon his team is to continue digging deep and regain the fire that led to his team’s resurgence.

“Lets just keep working,” sophomore Matthew Hurt said of his coach’s message after the game. “We have practice tomorrow, so we’ll start there - just watching film, getting the feedback and just trying to get better.

“It’s a long season. It’s been ups and downs. Once we lose, we just have to keep getting better, keep working harder at practice, games - everything. Just putting your head down and keep working.”

Hurt was the lone Blue Devil who brought max effort and focus for the full 45 minutes on Saturday. In fact, he had the game of his life, scoring 37 points on 15-of-21 shooting.

He was simply unreal. It wasn’t enough.

Unfortunately, he didn’t get much help until the second half, and late in the second on offense in particular.

Freshman DJ Steward scored all eight of his points in the second half, with six of those coming over a three minute stretch from 15:39 to 12:36. Only Wendell Moore Jr. joined Hurt in double figures, scoring 13 points. However, his 10th point didn’t come until there was just 2:17 left in overtime.

Hurt was the only guy on the team to have anything working offensively. He scored 16 points in the first half, and followed that up with 17 in the second and another four in overtime before fouling out.

Steward and Jeremy Roach were completely ineffective in the first half, combining for zero points on 0-of-7 shooting. Steward contributed one rebound and one assist while turning the ball over once. Roach gave one assist, while turning the ball over three times and being whistled for two fouls.

“Their perimeter just knocked our young guards back,” Krzyzewski said. “They did not have the games that they’ve had in the last couple weeks tonight. But they’re also playing against high level guards.”

Those guards, Carlik Jones and David Johnson, set the tone defensively. The result was a timid response from Duke’s young guards. Roach looked lost at times. Steward disappeared. Senior Jordan Goldwire was strong at times, but even he was off for stretches in the game.

Consequently, Duke put up weak shot attempts. Most were not necessarily rushed, but rather timid.

Hurt attempted 10 shots in the first half, while his teammates combined for 15.

“We were not shooting strong, we were shooting just to get a shot off,” Krzyzewski said. “But I credit their defense. They’re a really good defensive team. Their defense was a lot better than our offense in the first half.”

The postgame comments almost bring in a sense of deja vu. The Twilight Zone is apparently real, and Duke was living in it tonight.

Leading up to the game, Duke had seemingly put all the pieces together and learned what it takes to play 40 complete minutes of basketball. Instead, Saturday’s loss was a replay of what the Blue Devils battled all season long: a slow first half, followed by a final 20 minutes of digging themselves out of a hole.

After falling behind 36-26 at the half, Duke did show some new life in the second half. There was a new bounce and energy to them, most notably on defense. The Blue Devils held Louisville to just 37% shooting in the second half, and zero percent from 3-point range.

They forced seven second half turnovers, and created fast break points and opportunities in transition. Things were looking up for the Blue Devils in those final 20 minutes.

“[Krzyzewski’s] message at halftime was we just weren’t fighting in the first half, and he was right,” Moore said. “We didn’t do one thing that we’ve been doing the past four games to get wins. And it showed. We were down early. They hit us in the mouth early. They were attacking the offensive glass. They were just having their way in the first half.

“In the second half, we dug down deep. Coach said we had to fight. I felt like in the second half we did come out with that fight. We put ourselves in a position to win. Against very good teams you have to do more than put yourself in a position, you have to come out with the win.”

That’s a movie we’ve already seen a few times this season, though. It’s one most thought was finally off the airwaves.

Unfortunately for Duke it was not. Aside from Duke’s atrocious offense - outside of Hurt, of course, which went 4-of-21 from 3-point range, the biggest pitfall was the inability to control the boards, particularly on the defensive end.

They won the rebounding battle in the second half 19-16, though the Cardinals remained a force on the offensive glass. The dominance on the offensive boards was a theme throughout the game, as they pulled down 15 for the game, converting them into 10 additional points.

In fact, it was an offensive rebound that likely sealed Duke’s fate. That and one of the few defensive breakdowns in the second half.

The Blue Devils had a chance to closeout the game in regulation, but Louisville’s dominance on the boards reared its head late.

“Just not finding a body,” Hurt said when asked why Duke struggled to keep Louisville off the glass. “We knew they were going to send three or four guys to the offensive glass. We just had to hit them first, and in the first half we didn’t do that. Second half we did a little better, but we could’ve done a lot better.

“That was a key to emphasize and we didn’t do it, so that’s on us.”

Duke held a 65-64 lead with 38 seconds remaining after Moore connected on two free throws. The Blue Devils knew Jones, who finished the night with 25 points, would likely be the Cardinals’ go-to in the final seconds.

He cleared out, and attacked Moore and the hoop. He failed to convert the basket, but drew the foul. He made the first to tie the game up with 12 seconds remaining on the clock. Uncharacteristically, Jones missed the second.

A Blue Devil rebound, and they’ve got a chance at one last shot. In tune with how the game had gone all night, Duke didn’t win the rebounding battle. Instead, Jae’Lynn Withers pulled down his third offensive rebound of the second half and gave Louisville a chance to win it.

Jones got one more good look at the basket as the buzzer sounded, but missed.

“We got the lead and it comes down to the one possession,” Krzyzewski said. “We actually got Jones to go left, but our help side has to come over - it didn’t come over.

“We blocked out on the free throw, but we’ve got to grab the rebound. That would’ve given us at least a chance.

“Jones doesn’t miss often, but he missed then,” he continued. “It would’ve given us nine seconds, or 10 seconds to push the ball down the court. Our game boils down to stuff like that - that one possession. We were able to win that possession against Virginia and we did not win that possession tonight.”

From that point forward, everything fell apart. Duke trailed the entire overtime period and never really had a chance.

Hurt fouled out late, but in a surprising turn, he rarely was given an opportunity to get a shot attempt. The ball didn’t touch his hands as frequently as most would have expected.

Louisville made adjustments in the overtime period, however, Hurt had countered all night long. In those final five minutes, despite being the best offensive player on the floor for either team, he took just two of Duke’s eight shots.

“I’ve always got confidence in my teammates to make plays,” Hurt said. “It’s a team game, it’s not an individual game. I have the most confidence in my teammates, my coaching staff, everybody. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t get a lot of touches, because we have really good players on our team as well.”