Duke wins big but loses, too

DURHAM – A comfortable win over Louisville was the palate-cleansing part of Wednesday night.

The somber part was evident before, during and most of all, after Duke’s 84-59 win over the Cardinals at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Blue Devils will be without Caleb Foster for “some time,” said coach Jon Scheyer, as the freshman guard had his right foot in a boot and was using a Knee Rover — two-wheeled scooter — to get around the court.

“Unfortunately for us, we have to adjust without Caleb,” Scheyer said. “You know, my heart breaks for him that he couldn’t play today. … We’re going to be without him for some time.

“I don’t know what that time is.”

Foster was injured sometime early in the second half against Wake Forest on Saturday. It was partially lost in the discussion of Kyle Filipowski’s knee injury amid the court storming, as well as the overall discussion of court stormings over the last few days.

Now, though, as No. 10 Duke (22-6, 13-4 ACC) moves forward, the focus moves to a guard who has started 15 games this season and had appeared to be finding his groove.

“We have to look at things differently. That’s just the bottom line,” Scheyer said. “There’s not, all of a sudden, where you plug somebody in for Caleb. Nobody does what Caleb does on our team.”

On the ACC Network broadcast, Anish Shroff referred to the injury as “week-to-week.” Foster came into the game as one of four Blue Devils to play in every game this season.

The adjustment without Foster was traceable in the minutes for freshman forwards TJ Power and Sean Stewart. Power played 14 minutes, the most he’s played since the Dec. 30 game against Queens and more than he’d played in the previous 10 games combined; Stewart played an active 11 minutes, with nine points and nine rebounds.

Some of those lineups pressed Mark Mitchell back to the 3-position that he played last season, and the sophomore forward bounced back from an off game at Wake Forest with 17 points and seven rebounds.

It’s never a bad thing to have an attacking Mitchell — Duke is 31-3 when he scores at least 10 points, and 13-0 when that number is 15 or better.

“Obviously I’m a big part of this team, an important part,” Mitchell said, “and I think when I’m locked in playing well, helping the team do what we need to do, it’s a big thing.”

“I think on Saturday I didn’t play my best basketball and that was evident,” Mitchell continued. “I just tried to bounce back today and when I’m playing aggressive like I did today, it gives us a boost.”

In the bullet-dodged part of Wednesday night, Filipowski played 29 minutes and appeared to move as well as he has all season. His plus-31 was the best on the team.

“I’m very thankful that it wasn’t anything too bad and I was able to play today,” said Filipowski, who had nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds, along with six assists. “I’ve been feeling really good the last 24 hours, been practicing, doing everything.”

Without Foster, Duke started the three guards who have started this season — and Jeremy Roach (19), Jared McCain (14) and Tyrese Proctor (8) combined for 41 points on 15-for-27 shooting.

A lot of that shooting percentage was carried by Roach’s 8-for-11, as the senior guard continued his hyper-efficient scoring touch. He’s shooting above 50% on both field goals and 3-pointers over the last six games.

Duke’s lead was 17-13 after 11 minutes in the first half. What was a choppy, turnover-filled first few minutes turned into a sizable Blue Devils lead when Roach drained 3s on back-to-back possessions — the first off an offensive rebound, the second in transition with 6-10, 240-pound Brandon Huntley-Hatfield backpedaling.

Louisville coach Kenny Payne took a timeout after Roach’s second 3; on the other side of the break, Louisville committed a turnover and McCain buried a transition 3.

After that spurt, it was more of the same for the rest of the first half. Duke committed 10 turnovers, which helps explain why a team that shot above 50% (13-for-24) only had 36 points at halftime. Scheyer called the first half “sloppy.”

The Blue Devils only committed one turnover in the first 14 minutes of the second half, during which they extended the lead to as much as 24 points.

“I didn’t even know we had 10 turnovers, but that’s something we’ve got to clean up,” Roach said. “They weren’t even, like, forced turnovers. They were on us, dribbling off our foot, dribbling into two people, losing the ball going up. It was just simple stuff.”

TIP-INS: Former walk-on Spencer Hubbard, who was put on scholarship at the beginning of the fall semester, made his first 3-pointer in the final minute of the game. That elicited the biggest cheer of the game. … Duke’s 23 assists on 32 field goals matched a season high for assist rate (71.9%), and is the best clip against an ACC team. … This was the second trip back into the building for Nolan Smith, having been on the Cardinals’ coaching staff for the last two seasons. He was talking and joking with Duke’s staff and arena security guards a couple of hours before the game started.