Nelson’s Late Rebound Lifts No. 17 Duke Past No. 6 Louisville, 59-58

Thursday, February 5

Louisville, Ky.

7 p.m.

Duke University

17-6,12-0ACC

Louisville

21-4,11-1ACC

Duke

Louisville

Photo by: Duke Athletics

Nelson’s Late Rebound Lifts No. 17 Duke Past No. 6 Louisville, 59-58

2/5/2026 10:14:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With one second remaining and Duke holding a 59–58 lead, Riley Nelson secured the rebound off a missed free throw from No. 6 Louisville to seal the Blue Devils' win in ACC women's basketball action Thursday evening inside the KFC Yum! Center.

Toby Fournier paced the Blue Devils with 15 points while also contributing on the glass with nine rebounds. Taina Mair and Nelson rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 points apiece and nine rebounds apiece.

Defensively, Duke held the Cardinals to season lows in field goals (21) and shooting percentage (.339). The Blue Devils recorded eight steals, led by three from Ashlon Jackson, while also totaling nine blocks, paced by Fournier's three. Duke (17–6, 12–0 ACC) snapped Louisville's 14-game winning streak and extended its own unbeaten streak to 14 games.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke raced out to a 13-1 lead with the Blue Devils firing on all cylinders on both ends of the court. The Blue Devils went 6-of-6 from the floor in the first four minutes and held the Cardinals 0-of-7 from the field.
Fournier led all scorers in the early going with five points, while Mair and Nelson both dropped in a pair of mid-range jumpers. Duke kept Louisville from second-chance points in the early going, outrebounding the Cardinals 5-2.
Duke extended its lead to 16-1 before Louisville hit its first field goal with 4:32 left in the quarter. The bucket sparked a 7-0 run by the Cardinals that cut the Blue Devils to eight, 16-8.
Mair stopped the run with an offensive board and layup as the Blue Devils finished the final three minutes on a 7-3 spurt for a 23-11 lead after the first 10 minutes.
Fournier went 4-of-4 from the floor and finished the first quarter with 11 points of her own. Duke shot a season-best 71 percent in the opening frame, missing just four shots.
Duke cooled off in the second quarter as Louisville started to chip away at the lead with seven straight points to make it a 27-20 game. Fournier and Mair responded for the Blue Devils to push it back to a double-digit advantage, 32-20, with just under five minutes left in the second stanza.
Both teams struggled on the offensive end in the closing minutes of the half, but a three from Nelson rolled in at the buzzer to put Duke up, 37-27, after 20 minutes of action. The trifecta snapped a 3:48 scoring drought for the Blue Devils.
Louisville outscored Duke 11-4 in the first four minutes of the third quarter to pull within three, 41-38. Without a basket for over four minutes, it was Nelson once again hitting a big bucket in the paint to slow down the Cardinals. Arianna Roberson drained a three from the top of the arc to put Duke's lead back to eight, 46-38.
The Cardinals scored the final five points of the stanza to head into the fourth quarter down just three, 46-43. Seven turnovers plagued the Blue Devils in the third quarter, as Louisville got five of its 16 points off the giveaways.
Louisville scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to grab its first lead of the game and force the Blue Devils to call a timeout trailing, 49-46.
Delaney Thomas ended Duke's six-minute scoring drought with a pair at the charity stripe and Ashlon Jackson sank two more freebies to put the Blue Devils back in front, 50-49.
Mair got Duke's first field goal in nearly 10 minutes, collecting the offensive board and sliding in the paint for the easy finish. The senior tacked on two more free throws to put the Blue Devils back in front by five, 54-49.
Duke remained steady on defense for much of the fourth quarter and held Louisville without a point for over four minutes.
The Cardinal made a late push, knocking down five unanswered points, but a bucket from Thomas pushed Duke's lead back out, 59-55.
With under 90 seconds left, Louisville trimmed the margin to one on a layup and a fast-break chance that sent a Cardinal to the line, where she hit one free throw. However, Nelson sealed the 59–58 Duke victory moments later, securing the defensive rebound off the missed attempt.

UP NEXT

The Blue Devils return to Durham, Feb. 8 for a matchup with SMU. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m., on ACC Network.

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