National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Duke 76, Louisville 71
When: 9:30 PM ET, Saturday, November 24, 2012
Where: Imperial Arena at Atlantis Resort, Nassau
Officials: # Jamie Luckie, # Mike Roberts, # Doug Sirmons
Attendance: 3511

No. 5 Duke 76, No. 2 Louisville 71: Quinn Cook hit a 15-foot floater with 29 seconds remaining and scored his team’s final eight points as the Blue Devils held off a number of second-half charges from the Cardinals to win the Battle 4 Atlantis title game.

Mason Plumlee scored 16 points and Cook finished with 15 to collect the tournament's MVP award as all five starters scored in double figures for Duke (6-0), which defeated its second top five team of the season and won its 23rd consecutive regular-season tournament game.

Duke quickly established a lead 2:24 into the contest and did not trail from that point on, denying Louisville both times it managed to tie the game in the second half. After Chane Behanan hit a jumper to knot the game at 61 with 6:27 left, the Blue Devils benefited from four points from Plumlee and a 3-pointer from Seth Curry to answer a layup and free throw from the Cardinals (5-1).

Behanan hit a layup with 1:23 remaining to move Louisville to within 68-66, but Ryan Kelly’s inbounds pass led Cook just enough to beat Louisville’s pressure so he could convert a difficult layup on the other end. Behanan missed one of his two free throws on the next possession and Cook sank the difficult floater and his final four throws to preserve the win.

Peyton Siva had 19 points and six steals while Russ Smith added 17 points and seven rebounds to lead Louisville.

GAME NOTEBOOK: This game was the first meeting between Duke and Louisville since the Cardinals defeated the Blue Devils to win the 1986 National Championship. … It also marked the first time Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and Louisville coach Rick Pitino squared off since the Blue Devils handed the Pitino’s Kentucky team a 104-103 loss in the 1992 East Regional final, a game many consider to be the best in college basketball history. … Louisville C Gorgui Dieng missed the game with a left wrist injury suffered in Friday’s win over Missouri.
Top Game Performances
 
Louisville   Duke
Peyton Siva 19 Scoring Mason Plumlee 16
Peyton Siva 4 Assists Quinn Cook 6
Stephan Van Treese 8 Rebounds Mason Plumlee 7
Chane Behanan 3 Free Throws Made Quinn Cook 6
Peyton Siva 6 Steals Rasheed Sulaimon 3
Zach Price 1 Blocks Ryan Kelly 2
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
Louisville 71 45.5 2-8 9-14 6 37 1 6 15
Duke 76 43.6 5-20 23-27 13 31 6 8 14