GREENSBORO, N.C. — Oluchi Okananwa came off the bench to score 13 points and No. 11 Duke cruised to a 61-48 victory over short-handed Louisville on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at First Horizon Coliseum.
It was Louisville’s second straight game without leading scorer Jayda Curry, who is out with a shoulder injury. Key reserve Merissah Russell also missed her second straight game. Without Curry, the Cardinals could not muster enough offense against an aggressive Duke defensive effort. Louisville  trailed 31-18 at half, and fell behind by 22 points In the third quarter.
A spirited rally pulled the Cardinals back within 8 early in the fourth quarter, and the Cards had the ball with a chance to cut into the lead further, but could not convert.
“I just want to say how proud of this group I am,” Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. “Being down a few kids obviously coming into this made it a little bit more difficult. But the fight they showed -- our freshmen really stepped up and were put in situations that were new to them – and I was proud of them. Obviously we did not shoot the ball very well today, and Duke had a lot to do with that. I was really proud of the fact that we continued to fight. Got down 22 and then cut it to 8 and had the ball, and just couldn't get one to go.“
The third-seeded Blue Devils (24-7), who have won four in a row, will play No. 2 seed Notre Dame in Saturday's semifinals.
Okananwa made 4 of 7 shots with a 3-pointer and 4 of 5 free throws for Duke. Reigan Richardson added 12 points and Ashlon Jackson scored 11. ACC rookie of the year Toby Fournier scored 10 and grabbed eight rebounds off the bench.
Reserve Mackenly Randolph scored 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting to lead the sixth-seeded Cardinals. Olivia Cochran had 11 points and 11 rebounds for her sixth double-double this season. The Cardinals beat Duke 72-60 three weeks prior, becoming the only visiting team — men’s or women’s — to win a game in Cameron Indoor Stadium this season. Curry scored 24 points in that victory to lead all scorers.
Louisville made only 1 of 5 shots and turned the ball over five times in the first seven minutes of the second quarter in falling behind 23-13. Nyla Harris ended the Cardinals' six-minute scoring drought with a basket, but Taina Mair buried a 3-pointer with two seconds left as the Blue Devils closed the half on an 8-3 run for a 31-18 advantage.
Duke held Louisville to two points through the first four minutes of the third quarter and the Blue Devils used back-to-back 3-pointers by Jackson and a three-point play by Fournier to up their lead to 41-20. Jackson finished with eight points in the period and Duke led 45-30.
Louisville scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter, but Okananwa answered with a three-point play and Duke maintained a double-digit lead from there.
Now with a nearly two-week break before the start of NCAA Tournament play, Walz said he’ll take some time for his team to get healthy, then anticipate its tournament destination. Over two games in the ACC Tournament, some of Walz’s freshmen got more sustained playing time than at any point during the season, and he said he thinks that experience was good for them.
Louisville will head into the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 21-10.
”Overall I'm really proud of this group,” Walz said. “We've had a hell of a schedule. It started off as tough as anybody. I think we finished the NET, our non-conference was top 10. Our overall I think is like 12th or 13th. A lot of last night's game and today's game, we've got three and four freshmen on the floor at the same time. So I'm really proud of them. If they'll stick with it and continue to fight and continue to work, they're only going to get better and better.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
