Louisville Cardinals at Duke Blue Devils

Allen scores 28, No. 5 Duke routs Louisville 82-56

Allen scored 28 points and Duke held Louisville to a season-low point total in an 82-56 rout Wednesday night.

"We have length, and we have fairly good lateral movement from each kid," Krzyzewski said. "It may be that having an area allows this group to talk more than if they have a specific offensive situation and man. ... No question, we talk better, and Grayson's kind of able to lead us better."

Louisville's previous scoring low was 57 points against Purdue, but interim coach David Padgett came away impressed by the Duke defense.

"In a short period of time, they've turned it into a major defensive weapon," he said.

"We kept at it. Early in the year, we got a lead and we got comfortable," Allen said. "Today, we made it a point to, if we get a lead, make it bigger."

BIG PICTURE

Louisville: It's certainly been an eventful 48 hours for the Cardinals, with former coach Rick Pitino saying the school should consider legal action against the NCAA for making Louisville vacate its 2013 national championship. On the court, the Cardinals' two-game winning streak ended abruptly amid Allen's hot shooting and their own scoring struggles against that Duke zone. Now comes a trip to Virginia Tech, a home game against top-ranked Virginia and a season-ending visit to N.C. State.

"We've just got to focus on what the goal at hand is," Padgett said. "We can't just say, `Oh, well, it's too tough. We're not going to try.' We've got to dig in and give it everything we have."

Duke: The Bagley saga figures to linger into a third week after the presumptive one-and-done freshman missed his fourth straight game with the injury he suffered Feb. 8 in the loss to North Carolina, and Krzyzewski says he's day-to-day.

STAR WATCH

Allen finished with his highest-scoring performance since he scored a career-best 37 points in the victory over No. 2 Michigan State in November. He finished 10 of 20 from the field and took 15 of his team's 26 3-point attempts.

HIGHLIGHTS

Even some of Allen's missed 3s led to points for Duke. The prettiest play of this one came with about 9 minutes left in the half. Allen fired up a 3-pointer that bounced high off the iron, and Javin DeLaurier swooped in for a follow-up dunk that gave Duke a 23-15 lead. Two possessions later, DeLaurier followed up another missed 3 by Allen with a stickback dunk that pushed the lead into double figures for the first time.

UP NEXT

Louisville: At Virginia Tech on Saturday.

Duke: Hosts Syracuse on Saturday night.

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(This version corrects that Louisville's previous scoring low was 57 points.)

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