(Interstat) — In a defensive struggle defined by missed opportunities and a singular, dominant performance, the Duke Blue Devils escaped the KFC Yum! Center with a 59-58 victory over the Louisville Cardinals in an Atlantic Coast Conference women’s basketball clash on Thursday night.

The game, played before a crowd of 10,553, was a stark departure from typical offensive fireworks, with both teams combining for an anemic shooting display. Duke improved to 17-6 overall, while Louisville, which entered the game with a 21-3 record and as a slight pregame favorite, suffered a rare home defeat.

The narrative of the contest was largely written in the opening quarter and the frantic final seconds. Duke burst from the gates, leveraging its defensive intensity to build a commanding early lead. The Blue Devils held Louisville to just 11 points in the first period while scoring 23 themselves, a margin that proved decisive in the one-point outcome. Louisville spent the remainder of the game chipping away at the deficit, finally pulling within a single point in the game’s dying moments.

The most critical sequence of the night unfolded in the final seven seconds. With Duke clinging to a 57-56 lead, Louisville’s Imari Berry was fouled on a three-point attempt by Duke’s Riley Nelson, sending her to the line for three free throws with 0:01 remaining. Berry, a guard from Clarksville, Tennessee, made the first to tie the game at 57-57 but missed the second. Her third attempt also rimmed out, but Louisville’s Elif Istanbulluoglu secured the offensive rebound and was fouled on the putback attempt with 0:00.7 left.

Istanbulluoglu, a forward from Istanbul, Turkey, who finished with 13 points, went to the line for two shots with a chance to win the game. She calmly sank the first free throw to give Louisville its first lead of the night at 58-57. However, her second attempt missed. Duke’s Riley Nelson secured the defensive rebound and called an immediate timeout with 0:00.5 on the clock.

On the ensuing inbounds play, Duke’s Taina Mair was fouled by Louisville’s Reyna Scott while attempting to receive the pass. The officials reviewed the play and placed 0:00.6 back on the clock, sending Mair to the line for two shots. The sophomore guard from Boston, Massachusetts, who ended the night with 13 points, coolly drained both free throws to put Duke back ahead 59-58. Louisville’s last-ditch full-court heave was unsuccessful, sealing the dramatic Blue Devil victory.

The game was a testament to Duke’s defensive resilience, particularly from sophomore Toby Fournier. The 6-foot-2 forward from Toronto, Canada, was a force on both ends, scoring 15 points and anchoring a defensive effort that recorded nine blocks. Fournier herself had three blocks, including a crucial swat on a Berry three-point attempt with 37 seconds left that preserved a one-point Duke lead at the time.

Offensively, it was a grind for both squads. Duke shot 42.6% from the field but only 23.5% from three-point range. Louisville was even colder, connecting on just 33.9% of its field goals and 29.4% from beyond the arc. The Cardinals also struggled at the free-throw line, making only 11 of 18 attempts, with the final misses proving catastrophic.

Turnovers and points off them told a significant part of the story. Duke committed 19 turnovers, which Louisville converted into 20 points. However, the Cardinals gave the ball away 12 times, and the Blue Devils’ eight steals, part of a disruptive defensive effort, helped mitigate their own miscues. Louisville won the battle on the offensive glass 13-8 but could not translate that advantage into enough second-chance points to overcome its poor shooting.

Beyond Fournier and Mair, Duke received 13 points from Riley Nelson of Clarksburg, Maryland. For Louisville, Laura Ziegler of Herley, Denmark, scored 11 points and dished out three assists, while Reyna Scott of New York, New York, also added 11 points. Berry finished with nine points for the Cardinals.

The victory extends Duke’s winning streak to three games as they head into a home contest against SMU on Sunday. Louisville, which saw a five-game win streak snapped, will look to rebound on the road at Syracuse, also on Sunday. The game’s total points, 117, fell far short of the pregame over/under line of 141.5, underscoring the defensive nature of the contest decided in the final heartbeat at the free-throw line.