First half, Mark Mitchell. Second half, darn near everybody.
Duke survived a sluggish opening half to defeat Syracuse 86-66 Tuesday night, breaking open a tight game with a barrage of 3-pointers.
The win evened Duke’s ACC record at 1-1 and gave Duke its 10th win (against three losses).
Yes, there used to be a time when getting to 10 wins was a thing.
A lot went wrong for Duke in the first half. Post players Kyle Filipowski, Ryan Young and Sean Stewart combined for seven fouls and zero points. Filipowski played just over seven minutes. The Blue Devils missed all nine of their 3-pointers.
And still led 35-33. Because Mitchell attacked and attacked and attacked, to the tune of 18 points and five rebounds at intermission. He drew six fouls and made 6 of 7 from the line.
More than half of Duke’s points.
No one else had more than Jeremy Roach’s five points.
“I thought the job that Mark did in the first half,” Jon Scheyer said --”and it’s not just the scoring. Look, I’m proud of him for just trusting the process and doubling down on his work. It’s not easy playing here. There’s a lot of criticism. Mark’s just stayed the course. The best thing Mark Mitchell does is he’s a winner. That dude’s a winner.”
Duke jumped up 7-1 but the visitors caught up and took a 9-7 lead.
Syracuse’s last lead was 20-19. Then Mitchell had a dunk, an old-fashioned 3-point play, then another 3-point play, this one off an offensive rebound.
Mitchell scored eight consecutive Duke points.
Then the second half started and he got some help.
Last season a bad first half might have taken Filipowski out of the entire game. But Scheyer says that Filipowski can be “coached hard” and Duke challenged him at halftime.
“I knew I had a few plays where I could have been better,” Filipowski said—”maybe more than a few--just coming out fresh, keeping myself in the right mindset, keep myself optimistic, play for my teammates.”
Halftime message from the coaches?
“Coaches were telling me I needed to be who I am best.”
Scheyer said Duke was planning on going to Filipowski early and often to open the second half.
But first Jared McCain had to end that 3-point drought.
Which he did on Duke’s first possession. Then Filipowski scored inside, assisted to Mitchell and scored inside again.
But Duke couldn’t get stops and the teams traded baskets. In fact at one point early in the second half the teams combined to score on eight consecutive possessions.
Duke led 46-45 and 49-47, when they finally started getting some stops, live-ball turnovers that led to baskets. ]
Tyrese Proctor made a 3, then a pair of freebies, then McCain hit a 3 in transition off a turnover, then Filipowski scored inside again, then another McCain bomb in transition off another turnover and suddenly it was 62-49, a decisive 13-2 run over a span of only 4:03.
Duke’s lead never got under 11 after that.
Duke made all eight of its 3-pointers in the second half.
“We finally started getting some stops,” Roach said of the second half. “We were letting them get too many easy ones in the first half and in the second half we cut that down.”
Roach said of the 3s “I think in the first half we were taking some tough ones. In the second half we got out some in transition. We were scoring pretty much every time down the court.”
Mitchell ended with 21 points, McCain 18, Roach 17, Proctor 14 and Filipowski 12, with 7 rebounds; Mitchell had six boards.
Jaylen Blakes only scored two points but gained praise for his typically disruptive defense. He had 3 steals, 2 assists and 2 rebounds in 14:31 off the bench.
“Making every right play,” Scheyer said of Blakes.
Duke shot 75 percent from the field in the second half and made 16 of 18 from the line from the game.
Scheyer said Duke played too much one-on-one in the first half and tried to “force the issue a little bit too much.” In the second half “we made some beautiful plays, pass-aheads, extra passes, sharing the ball.”
Duke had 19 assists against 11 turnovers, while Syracuse had 14 assists and 17 turnovers. Duke had 11 steals and a 26 to 11 advantage in points off turnovers.
Maliq Brown (26 points) and Judah Mintz (18 points, 6 assists, 5 turnovers), led Syracuse but no one else scored more than six.
Duke still doesn’t have a true road win this season and hits the road for contests at Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. Scheyer said his team has learned how to win as a team since the Arkansas and Georgia Tech losses.
The second half really did feel like the good old days of the motion offense.
I loved the energy Mitchell brought to the game in the first half. He kept Duke in it while Flip sat with the coaches. Flip makes so many lazy fouls. He needs to clean that up.
GoDuke!