CRAWFORD | Louisville led for most of the ACC championship. Duke took the trophy in OT | U of L Sports

DULUTH, Ga. (WDRB) — For most of Sunday afternoon, Louisville played like the ACC champion.

The Cardinals defended with discipline. They moved the ball with patience. They forced Duke to work for everything it got and controlled the rhythm of the game for long stretches.

For nearly three quarters, Louisville looked like the steadier team. For most of the afternoon, Louisville looked like the team that would be cutting down nets.

But championships, cruelly, are not awarded for most of the afternoon.

Louisville | Kentucky | Indiana | Eric Crawford

They're decided in the last few minutes.

And once again this season, that's where Louisville's grip slipped.

Duke rallied late, survived regulation, and edged the Cardinals 70–65 in overtime Sunday at Gas South Arena, winning its second straight ACC Tournament championship and leaving Louisville with the uneasy feeling that it had just watched a game it controlled slowly drift away.

Louisville led for 35 minutes and 3 seconds of the 45-minute game. Duke led for just seven.

The Cardinals led by as many as 11 early and dictated the tone for most of the day.

And yet, somehow, they still left without the trophy.

The turning point came in the kind of moment that can haunt a team long after the confetti is swept up.

With just over a minute to play, Duke missed a pair of three-pointers, Louisville grabbed the rebound and Tajianna Roberts had the ball working it upcourt with a four-point lead and the clock ticking toward the one-minute mark. The Cardinals needed only to advance the ball across midcourt and force Duke to foul.

Instead, the whistle blew.

Ten-second violation.

The possession flipped. Momentum followed.

Moments later, Duke's Delaney Thomas scored on a put-back and was fouled. She missed the free-throw, but Toby Fournier grabbed the offensive rebound and dished to Riley Nelson, who buried a three-pointer, and just like that, Duke went from four down to one up.

It was the sequence where Louisville lost the ACC championship, though it would have more chances, and actually came back to lead by two before a late layup by Duke forced overtime.

Jeff Walz didn't hide from it afterward.

"That's my fault," he said. "I should have called a timeout before the 10-second violation."

Walz's instinct had been to attack the press instead of allowing Duke to set up defensively. Because the rebound wasn't in the final minute, he couldn't advance the ball with a timeout. But instead of running ahead, Louisville backed up. The Cardinals hesitated, the count ticked upward, and the chance slipped away.

"It's one of those where it's like, holy (expletive), we're not really doing this," Walz said. "And we did, so that's my fault. I take responsibility."

It was one moment in a game filled with them.

The other problem arrived under the rim.

Duke's Thomas owned the glass in the game's final stretches, finishing with 19 points and nine rebounds and repeatedly extending possessions that Louisville desperately needed to end.

While Mackenly Randolph fought back — playing all 45 minutes, finishing with 17 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and zero turnovers — Thomas kept finding ways to keep Duke alive.

"She won the game for them," Walz said. "She got every offensive rebound they had to have."

"Mack played her ass off today," Walz said.

By the end, Duke held a 42–34 rebounding edge and turned those extra possessions into the kind of late opportunities Louisville could not match.

Walz has said it all season, and he repeated it again Sunday. If you want to win in March, the formula doesn't change.

"You've got to rebound and you've got to make free throws," he said.

Louisville did both for long stretches. Just not when it mattered most.

None of that should obscure what Louisville delivered. Imari Berry added 18 points. The Cardinals' defense held Duke to 38.6% shooting. For most of the afternoon, Louisville had answers for everything Duke threw at them.

This Louisville team competes with everybody. It challenges every opponent it faces. It has led by double digits in many of its losses. It stays in games deep into the second half against elite teams.

But closing them — finishing the job — has been the elusive step.

Walz said afterward that Louisville has the potential to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

"They're one of the top teams in the country," Duke coach Kara Lawson said.

But Walz also offered the flip side with equal honesty.

"We're also a team that could be a first-weekend exit," he said. The difference, he said, will come down to urgency — the relentless attention to the small details that decide tight games. Rebounding. Free throws. Finishing possessions.

"We feel like we had it in our hands and let it go," Laura Ziegler said. "That's tough."