Sophomore Tyrese Proctor scored a career-high 24 points off the bench as No. 12 Duke earned an 83-69 win at Louisville on Tuesday night.
The Blue Devils (14-4, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) bounced back from a Saturday home loss to Pitt that led to their five-spot drop in the AP Top 25. Duke was boosted by the returns of Mark Mitchell, who missed the previous two games, and Jeremy Roach, who sat out the loss against Pitt. Both players were nursing knee injuries.
Mitchell returned to form, totaling 20 points and 12 rebounds against the Cardinals.
Kyle Filipowski chipped in 17 points in addition to team highs in rebounds (15) and assists (five), while Jared McCain scored 10 points. Roach had 10 points and three assists in the first half — scoring seven of his points on a crucial 14-2 run for the Blue Devils. He played just one minute in the second half.
Louisville (6-13, 1-7) was paced by Brandon Huntley-Hatfield’s 20 points and 11 rebounds. Mike James and Skyy Clark each scored 13 points and Ty-Laur Johnson had 10 as the Cardinals lost their fourth straight game.
The Blue Devils led by as much as 18 points in the first half and were up by 11 points at halftime, largely thanks to 12 first half points from Mitchell.
Louisville opened the second half with a 10-2 run — sparked by a 3-pointer from Tre White — to trim the deficit to three points. Duke responded though, as Proctor scored 13 of the Blue Devils’ next 19 points as they pushed their lead back to double digits. Duke coasted to a victory from there.
After losing the rebounding battle in its loss to Pitt, Duke won on the glass against the Cardinals 43-28. The Blue Devils also shot 36 percent from 3-point range (9 of 25) while holding Louisville to 29.4 percent from deep (5 of 17).
Duke returns home to face Clemson on Saturday, the same day Louisville plays host to Virginia.
–Field Level Media