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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — All those losses last month might have taught Duke something important: How to win.
The Blue Devils beat No. 13 Louisville 72-65 on Monday night behind 18 points and 10 rebounds from freshman Brandon Ingram.
Grayson Allen scored 19 points and Luke Kennard had 11 for the Blue Devils (18-6, 7-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), who let a 15-point lead slip away in the second half before hitting 10 of 12 free throws in the final 3:14 and beating a ranked opponent for the first time this season.
"A couple of weeks ago, there is no way," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I think we lose that game by 15 points because we wouldn't be able to get there."
After losing four of five in January, Duke has won three straight.
"I just felt like we were tough. Guys wanted the ball. We made winning plays, and we went to the free throw line and we made free throws," guard Matt Jones said. "Those are signs of toughness. ... We knew that we'd been in this position before and we were kind of just drawing off experience."
Donovan Mitchell scored 17 points and Quentin Snider, who fouled out with 2:01 left, added 12 for the Cardinals (19-5, 8-3), who shot 56 percent in the second half and erased a 15-point deficit but missed a chance to take sole possession of first place in the league.
The key stretch came when Louisville had the ball down 66-62 with about 2½ minutes left. Ray Spalding left a layup short off the iron, Duke's Marshall Plumlee grabbed the rebound and it was at least a two-possession game the rest of the way.
Ingram and Jones both made two free throws on the next two possessions before freshman Derryck Thornton hit a jumper in the lane with the shot clock winding down to make it 70-62 with 33 seconds left.
"Little things — we missed itty-bitty layups, we missed free throws, just little things that we just missed, and we could have won off that," Snider said.
Trey Lewis swished a 3-pointer with 24.5 seconds left to pull the Cardinals within five and Thornton missed two free throws with 22.5 seconds left, but Damion Lee missed a 3-pointer with about 10 seconds to play and Kennard iced it with two more free throws with 6.4 seconds left.
Plumlee added 10 points for the Blue Devils, who opened a run of four games in 12 days against the top three teams in the ACC standings — all ranked 13th or better in the latest poll.
Lewis finished with 11 points, while Lee had 10 on 3-of-15 shooting and missed all five of his 3-point attempts in his return from a knee bruise that kept him out of the Boston College win on Saturday.
"They just really pressured him," coach Rick Pitino said. "And he's got to learn to play without the basketball a little bit more early in the game, and slow down. ... He's rushing things too much."
This was Louisville's first road game since announcing it would self-impose a postseason ban this year amid an ongoing investigation into a sex scandal involving escorts, and it coincided with Pitino's first visit to Cameron Indoor Stadium. He fell to 1-4 against the Blue Devils, against whom he's had some classic matchups through the years — but none at Cameron.
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QUICK TURNAROUND
This was the third time in four weeks that Duke made the quick Saturday-Monday turnaround. The Blue Devils lost on each of the two previous Mondays, first to Syracuse and then at No. 12 Miami. "We were learning," Jones said. "We're older now, so to speak. We remember those two games. We don't want that feeling again. We just had to fight."
TIP-INS
Louisville: This marked the 1,000th career game in Pitino's Hall of Fame career. He entered 741-258 in 31 seasons as a college coach. ... It was the Cardinals' first game at Cameron since 1983.
Duke: This marked the 1,000th game played at Cameron. The Blue Devils entered 843-156 at the historic building that opened in 1940.
UP NEXT
Louisville visits Notre Dame on Saturday.
Duke plays host to No. 7 Virginia on Saturday.
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Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joedy-mccreary
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