Duke Blue Devils vs Louisville Cardinals Box Score on Jan 23, 2021

Carlik Jones scored 24 points and carried Louisville down the stretch as the host Cardinals nipped visiting Duke 70-65 in a matchup of teams trying to shake slumps Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Ky.

Jae'Lyn Withers added 13 points, David Johnson had 12 points and Dre Davis tallied 11 points for Louisville (10-3, 5-2 ACC), which lost its two previous games. Jones scored 19 points after halftime.

Duke (5-5, 3-3), which completed a stretch of three consecutive road outings, has lost three games in a row for just the second time since 2007. The last time it happened came in 2016.

Matthew Hurt poured in 24 points before fouling out with 1:50 to play and DJ Steward had 13 points for the Blue Devils.

Jones, who entered the game averaging 17.9 points per game, made two free throws to push the Cardinals to the lead fouling Hurt's final foul. Jalen Johnson countered with a jumper for Duke only to have Jones drive for a score at the other end as the lead changed hands three times in a 30-second span.

Jalen Johnson's turnover gave the Cardinals a chance to extend its edge. Both teams missed shots before Jones sank two free throws at the 25-second mark for a 68-65 lead.

Duke's Wendell Moore Jr. and Steward missed 3-point attempts before two more Jones free throws wrapped it up with five seconds remaining.

Earlier, Duke went ahead 61-59 on Hurt's jumper with 4:51 left. The Blue Devils then had a scoreless stretch of 2:44 without scoring before Steward made a pair of foul shots for a 63-62 advantage.

Hurt made four 3-point shots, accounting for half of the team's eight by the time he departed.

The margin was rarely wider than two possessions in either team's favor, with Louisville holding a 36-33 edge at halftime. The Cardinals stretched the gap to 50-44 before the game tightened again.

Both teams fell out of the Top 25 at the start of the week, then Louisville lost to Florida State while Duke dropped a game at Pittsburgh.

In Duke's most-recent visit to Louisville, the Blue Devils rallied from 23 points down in the final 9 1/2 minutes to pull off the second-largest comeback victory in program history.

--Field Level Media