- - Cameron Boozer, No. 6 Duke rally from largest deficit of the season to beat No. 20 Louisville

Ryan Young January 7, 2026 at 3:25 AM

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After falling into a 12-point hole early, Duke flew ahead to grab a commanding win over Louisville on the road on Tuesday night. (Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images) (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect / Reuters)

Cameron Boozer and the Blue Devils didn't make it easy on Tuesday night, but they are headed home still perfect in ACC play.

No. 6 Duke rallied out of a 12-point deficit in the first half, the team's largest of the season so far, to beat No. 20 Louisville 84-73 on Tuesday at the KFC Yum! Center. That got the Blue Devils to 14-1 on the season and maintained their early lead in the conference standings.

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ANOTHER COMEBACK DUB AT THE YUM! pic.twitter.com/xBFkENxDOJ

— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) January 7, 2026

Boozer was incredibly efficient to lead the Blue Devils to the win, too. He dropped 27 points and shot 10-of-12 from the field, which matched his season-high field goal percentage, while adding eight rebounds and four assists. He missed just a single 3-point attempt and a short bucket from the center in the lane the entire game. It marked the fourth time in the last five games in which Boozer has scored at least 23 points, too.

Louisville led the whole way in the first half, and even jumped out to a 12-point lead at one point early on. That was Duke’s largest deficit of the season so far, two points more than what they faced against Lipscomb last month before rallying for that win. They led nearly the entire way in their loss to Texas Tech, too, before slipping at the end in a one-point loss — their only loss of the year.

The Cardinals took a nine-point lead into the break on Tuesday night, too, thanks to 16 first-half points from Ryan Conwell and 10 made 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes as a group. It was Boozer who kept Duke in it early. He missed just one shot in the first half and matched the six made field goals that the rest of the Blue Devils made from the field combined.

But Duke finally took off after halftime. They opened the period on a long 14-6 run to get within a single point, and then finally took their first lead of the night after a pair of Boozer free throws.

Louisville largely shut down after that, and couldn't make a bucket from behind the arc. Louisville made just one of their first 14 attempts from deep in the second half, which allowed Duke to finally surge ahead for good. The Blue Devils just held on down the stretch, their double-digit deficit long behind them. In total, the Blue Devils outscored the Cardinals by 20 points in the second half.

Isaiah Evans finished with 23 points to go with Boozer's night for Duke in the win. Caleb Foster finished with 20 points after he went 9-of-13 from the field. The Blue Devils shot 51% from the field despite making just seven 3-pointers as a group. Duke entered the game after narrow wins against both Georgia Tech and Florida State to open conference play. That came after their loss to the Red Raiders, too.

Conwell led Louisville with 24 points and seven rebounds. Aly Khalifa added 14 points off the bench, and Adrian Wooley finished with 11 points. The Cardinals were without star guard Mikel Brown Jr. Brown has now missed five straight games with a lower back injury, and was ruled out of the contest ahead of time. Brown has averaged 16.6 points and 5.1 assists in 10 games this season. They now sit at 11-4 on the season, and just 1-2 in conference play after last week's loss to Stanford.

While they may have gotten out to another slow start, the Blue Devils team that showed up in the second half on Tuesday night easily erased any doubts about their status as one of the top teams in the country.

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Source: “AOL Sports”