Duke put together a historic comeback in their 71-69 win at Louisville on Tuesday night, and Zion Williamson had a very simple explanation for the effort.
According to the freshman phenom, all it took was Duke playing harder than Louisville to pull off the comeback.
“It just took us playing hard. They were playing harder than us — Louisville’s a very great team — we just had to play harder than them,” Williamson told ESPN after the game.
Williamson also shared the message that Coach K gave the team while they were trailing: “I don’t coach losers.” That was enough to rally Duke to a comeback.
The Blue Devils were down 59-36 with 9:13 left in the game and stormed back by closing on a 35-10 run. They made 10/17 shots compared to 2/10 for Louisville to end the game. The Blue Devils also went 11/13 at the line. This was their largest second-half comeback in program history.
Duke trailed by 23 points with 9:58 remaining
Duke trailed by 19 points with 6:43 remaining
Duke trailed by 12 points with 5:00 remaining
Duke trailed by 7 points with 4:05 remaining
Duke took a 2 point lead with 14 seconds remaining
Duke won. pic.twitter.com/3HHB54D6cq
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 13, 2019
Williamson had 27 points and 12 rebounds in the game. Between his effort in the comeback and his spectacular highlight on Saturday, Williamson has shown us that he has much more than physical tools — he has incredible heart and effort as well.
