It was only about five minutes of game time. But it was a disastrous five minutes from which Duke could never recover, losing its first true road game 80-75 to Arkansas.
Duke and Arkansas traded baskets for the first 26 minutes or so Wednesday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Neither team led by more than three points in a first half that ended with the home team up 33-32.
The second half followed suit. For awhile. Kyle Filipowski scored inside to make it 44-43 Arkansas, with 13:57 left in the game.
Then the wheels came off, the lid went on and Duke couldn’t buy a basket. The Blue Devils missed eight of their next nine field goals, many in the lane; they did make two free throws.
On the other end of the court Arkansas knocked down seven straight field goals, with some foul shots thrown in.
A 19-6 run over a span of just 4:59 and Duke was in a 14-point hole.
Duke didn’t give up, so there’s that. It could have been a blow-out. But it wasn’t. But it wasn’t a win either, not for Duke anyway.
Duke still trailed by double digits, at 74-63 with less than two minutes to go before mounting a furious rally. Kyle Filipowski scored nine points in 56 seconds, as Duke cut the lead to three at 78-75. But the Blue Devils were out of time. Caleb Foster missed a 3 that would have cut the deficit to a point with about 10 seconds left, while the Razorbacks made two of four from the line.
Duke was outrebounded 40-34 but had four fewer turnovers. Foul shooting was basically even.
But excluding Filipowski (9-20, 26 points) and Jeremy Roach (7-13, 22 points) Duke made 8 of 34 shots from the field. Mark Mitchell was 2 for 8, Tyrese Proctor 3 for 12, Jared McCain 1 for 7, Caleb Foster 0 for 5.
Arkansas hit 49.1 percent from the field. Duke was 6 of 22 from beyond the arc, Arkansas 9 of 22.
You don’t have to have an advanced degree in math to figure this one out.
I have no idea how much of this was due to first-road-game-of-the-season jitters. But Duke opens ACC play on the road Saturday afternoon against Georgia Tech so Duke better get it fixed in a hurry.
Or Duke has a chance to flip the script and turn the page in a hurry. It’s still early. But these games still count and a little more urgency would look good to me.
As would making some shots.
Hey Kraig,
Thanks for the support.
Can you clarify your concerns a bit? Are you okay with the outcome but not the score in the headline? In other words, are you okay with something like "Duke rally falls short?" Or "Duke falls to Arkansas?" Because omitting even a hint of outcome in a headline goes against everything I've learned over the years. It's called "burying the lede" and it's not considered a good thing. Is there any way to finesse this in your browser so that you can open the article at your leisure without receiving push notifications or whatever. I think I understand your dilemma but there's only so far I can go here. Thoughts from other subscribers?
Fixed kt. Thanks for catching that.