DURHAM, N.C. — The student section started filling in early Monday night — perhaps due to the top-25 ACC matchup, perhaps due to the free pizza and beer being offered to the first Cameron Crazies to enter, or a mix of both — and were soon rewarded for their attendance.

No. 4 Duke drilled No. 20 Louisville, 83-52, on Monday night at Cameron Indoor to stay unbeaten in ACC play and pick up its ninth Quad 1 win — tied with No. 1 Arizona for the most of any team in the nation.

“I just want to thank our fans,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said to open his postgame press conference. “I think the fact that we have that snowstorm and the way our student body showed up. I think, like, a third of the school is here ... that was really special.”

Last time these two teams faced off, the Blue Devils came from behind to beat Louisville, 84-73, on Jan. 6 at the KFC Yum! Center. It was the first time this season, outside of Duke’s loss to Texas Tech in December, that the Blue Devils looked shaky, vulnerable, even rattled. They fell behind by 12 in the first half and trailed by 9 at halftime.

But not Monday. After racing out to a 17-9 lead — 10 of those points coming from Isaiah Evans and Cam Boozer — Duke showed grit even when its shooting went cold. The Blue Devils (19-1, 8-0) hadn’t recorded a field goal in over two minutes when, midway through the first half, Patrick Ngongba II missed a shot and Maliq Brown, somehow, recovered the ball by chasing down Louisville’s J’vonne Hadley in the corner and hitting the ball out of bounds — and off the Cardinal.

That hustle from Ngongba, Brown and the rest of the Blue Devils continued, even as Duke stormed ahead thanks to its stifling defense and preponderance of points in the paint.

The Blue Devils ended the first half on a 9-0 run in roughly two and a half minutes of game time. Louisville (14-6, 4-4), meanwhile, missed its last eight field goal attempts of the opening period. It marked the second time in the first half the Cardinals miss eight or more consecutive shots and was part of a dismal 3-for-20 shooting stretch Louisville carried into halftime.

Scheyer entered Monday night boasting a 51-0 record at Cameron Indoor when his team leads at half. That wasn’t about to change against the Cardinals, especially with Louisville shooting just 29% from the field.

Duke opened the second half by outscoring Louisville 10-5 — all of those points courtesy of Ngongba.

The Blue Devils continued to lay on the points with 45 points and a blistering 1.45 points per possession after the break. They also won in the trenches, outscoring Louisville 42-10 in the paint and pulling down 47 rebounds to the Cardinals’ 26.

Cam had 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Duke. Ngongba and Evans each scored 15 points while Nik Khamenia added 14 points off the bench in 15 minutes.

After the game, Louisville coach Pat Kelsey struggled to find any bright spots in his team’s performance.

“We’ve all got our freaking butts whooped before and that’s how I feel right now,” Kelsey said. “We got our freaking butts whooped.”

Here are a few observations from the game:

A rough outing for Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr.

Monday night was not kind to Mikel Brown Jr.

When he wasn’t getting faceguarded by Cayden Boozer, the Blue Devils found other ways to irritate the Louisville point guard and make him uncomfortable.

Khamenia was guarding Brown when he stepped out of bounds. Later in the first half, one sequence saw Kelsey run Brown off of multiple ball screens, which Caleb Foster did his best to weave through. When Brown finally got to the elbow, he was greeted by Dame Sarr, who picked him up with his monster 7-foot wingspan. Sarr stayed with Brown as he drove into the heart of the Duke defense — and right at Cam.

Brown entered Monday night averaging 16.9 points and 5.2 assists per game. He had missed eight straight games with a back injury — including Duke’s trip to Louisville on Jan. 6 — and returned to the lineup to drop 20. But the trip to Cameron Indoor was a different story for the former McDonald’s All-American.

He finished with seven points on 1-for-13 shooting, earning the majority of his points at the free throw line. He recorded nearly as many turnovers (three) as he did assists (four).

Scheyer credited Foster’s defense as a key to slowing Brown down.

“I thought Caleb’s defense was off the charts,” Scheyer said. “He did a great job. Brown’s shifty. He can really shoot. He can do both ... and then when Cayden came in. I thought the defense collectively was just high-level.”

Ngongba with a much better showing against Louisville

It was a wonder Ngongba made it back to the bench when Louisville called a 30-second timeout less than two minutes into the second half. It seemed like each and every one of his Blue Devil teammates wanted to stand in his way — offering him a chest bump after chest bump — and join the celebration. And for good reason: Ngongba had just ripped off an 8-0 personal run to start the second half.

The sophomore started things off with a layup, hit two free throws, slammed home a lob and bodied into the lane for a hook shot before Kelsey decided his squad needed a break.

But Ngongba wasn’t done. He added a tip-in after the timeout to make it a 10-0 personal run.

Ngongba didn’t have his best outing during the Blue Devils’ trip to KFC Yum! Center earlier this month, a game in which he recorded as many fouls (four) as points in 10 minutes of playing time.

On Monday, the big man scored 15 points and got the home crowd rocking — not only on the alley-oop, but also his vicious first-half block of Ryan Conwell.

“The way that Pat came on and started the second half and asserted himself ... was big time,” Scheyer said. “I could talk about every single one of our guys. A ton of respect for Louisville — who they are as a team, their offensive firepower. And I just thought our defense tonight was the difference maker.”

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