The No. 1 seed Louisville Cardinals dominated the No. 2 seed Duke Blue Devils and advanced to Atlanta for the Final Four in the NCAA tournament in the Midwest Region on Sunday, 85-63.
The first half of this game was a back-and-forth nail biter that included nine ties and ten lead changes. The Cardinals suffered an emotional loss with six minutes and a half minutes remaining in the first half. Sophomore guard Kevin Ware suffered a gruesome broken right leg in front of his bench. Ware’s teammates and Head Coach Rick Pitino got emotional as Ware was loaded onto a stretcher.
It looked like Duke would take advantage as the Blue Devils scored six unanswered points to grab their largest lead of the game at 26-23. The Cardinals responded, closing the half with four made free throws and took a 35-32 lead into the break.
The second half was completely different. Duke tied the game at 42-42 with 16:20 remaining but suffered an eight minute field goal drought. The Cardinals went on a 17-2 run sparked by point guard Peyton Siva. Louisville never allowed Duke to crawl back into the game as the Cardinals extended their lead to 22 points in the final seconds.
Russ Smith led the Cardinals with 23 points. Gorgui Dieng contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds, and Peyton Siva added 16 points. Louisville shot 52.7 percent from the floor. The Cardinals did not depend up on the 3-point shot today, only hitting two 3-pointers out of 13 attempts. The Cardinals did get to the free throw line often, where they knocked in 25-36.
Mason Plumlee led the Blue Devils with 17 points and 12 rebounds. He was 6-9 shooting from the floor. The Cardinals held Seth Curry to 12 points on 3-9 shooting. Quinn Cook also scored 12 points. Louisville held Duke to 36.5 percent from the floor and 4 of 16 from behind the arc. Duke finished the game with 11 turnovers, 10 of which were steals by the Cardinals.
Louisville will face No. 9 seed Wichita State on Saturday at 6:09 p.m. (ET). Wichita State advanced to the Final Four after defeating No. 2 seed Ohio State on Saturday, 70-66.
For more information, visit www.NCAA.com.
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