Louisville holds on to beat #17 Duke 66-60.

For a brief moment every person in the Yum Center held their breath. With just under eight minutes to go in the 2nd quarter Asia Durr crumpled to the floor in pain. As she was carried off the floor back to the locker the expectations for this season were already silently being recalibrated in the minds of all the people watching. However, with a couple of minutes left in the half Asia was back on the floor albeit operating with a sprained ankle. Collective exhale.

Still, even with their superstar player the Cards once again could not hold onto a big lead to put a team away. Halfway through the 3rd quarter Louisville’s lead was 52-37 but the Cards slowed down on offense and Duke chipped away at the lead. With a minute to go in the game the lead had dwindled to 63-60, but with just 22 seconds to go Sam Fuehring got fouled on an inbounds play and coolly sank two free throws to make it a 2 possession game. The final score was 66-60.

Asia Durr finished the game with 22 points. Myisha Hines-Allen had another double-double (13 pts/10 reb) but her coach was not impressed. After the game Coach Walz said, “She played as poorly as she has all year. She knows she played bad. It’s unacceptable.” He added, “I hope we don’t have to take a loss to know that we have to play for 40 minutes.” He did praise Sam saying that she “stepped up huge” and knocked down two big free throws.

Next up for Louisville is Virginia Tech. The game is at the Yum Center on Sunday at 2pm. It can be seen on ACC Network Extra.