Duke got back on the winning side of the ledger Wednesday night, defeating Notre Dame 71-53.
The win improves Duke’s record to 17-5, 8-3 in the ACC.
It wasn’t a great offensive night for the Devils. But the defense was vintage, holding the Irish to 34 percent shooting, 26 percent from beyond the arc, while forcing 15 turnovers and winning the battle of the boards, 43-35.
Now, no one would confuse Notre Dame with an offensive juggernaut. But after giving up 93 points last time out, holding an ACC team, any ACC team to 53 points is a bounce back.
Notre Dame led early 3-0 and 5-3 before Duke went on a 17-0 run that saw the visitors miss 12 straight from the field, with some turnovers thrown in for good measure.
Duke had a chance to break it wide open but too many empty possessions kept the Irish in the game. Braeden Shrewsberry and Marcus Burton hit back-to-back 3s to change a 22-7 Duke lead to a 22-13 lead and Duke’s chance for an early knockout evaporated.
Kyle Filipowski was scoreless in seven foul-plagued minutes in the first half; he did grab four rebounds. Duke had seven turnovers at the half, 3 for 11 from beyond the arc. Duke didn’t close the half well--a recent problem Scheyer acknowledged Duke needs to fix.
It would help if Duke’s best player wasn’t on the bench in foul trouble.
“We need him to be better,” Scheyer said of Filipowski. “He’s hard on himself and he wants to be better.”
But that defense.
“We’re lucky we have four [starters] who can guard guards,” Scheyer said. “I think that versatility really helped. We can put five guys on the floor who can really defend.”
Duke led 33-25 at intermission.
Jared McCain knocked down a trey to open the second half and Mark Mitchell followed with two foul shots and Duke was back up 13.
Then Filipowski picked up his third foul 64 seconds into the second half.
A funny thing happened on the way to the scorer’s table.
Nothing.
Filipowski stayed in.
“Coach Scheyer definitely left me in to give me a confidence boost, which I appreciate greatly.”
He responded. An offensive rebound made it 40-27, two free throws made it 42-30, a defensive rebound set up McCain for a layup and it was 44-33, an offensive rebound converted made it 52-39.
“At some point he has to learn to play through that,” Scheyer said. “I thought it was a great turning point for him tonight to be able to play through that foul trouble.”
Duke gradually wore Notre Dame down.
“I think we did a good job of outworking those guys tonight,” Filipowski said.
Their freshman guard Markus Burton is a marvelous player; he led everyone with 19 points. But he was 8 for 17 from the field, didn’t go to the foul line and turned it over three times.
Duke can live with that. And did.
Especially when Duke reduced its second-half turnovers to two and allowed Notre Dame two second-chance points and five fast-break points for the entire game.
Duke had 16 fast-break points, important for a night when Duke shot 4 for 18 on 3s and 15 for 25 from the line.
Caleb Foster had his best game in several weeks, 13 points. Mitchell had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Filipowski eight points, nine rebounds and a team-best three assists, Tyrese Proctor nine points.
Ryan Young had a solid game off the bench, six points, five rebounds, two blocks.
“Obviously, any loss, you look at what you’ve done,” Young said of bouncing back from the North Carolina loss, “you look at yourselves in the mirror and see what you can do better. I thought it was just what we needed to come out and be the aggressor.”
“We more alert going for the ball,” Scheyer said. “It was a good response.”
I was very fortunate to be close to the action for this one. I was very impressed by the energy and quickness from Mitchell and Stewart. Mitchell was highly disruptive to ND’s playmaking and assertive on the offensive end. Stewart’s 11 minute stats - 4 points, 5 boards, 3 steals, and a tremendous blocked shot - came during meaningful times of the game and Duke was +10 with him on the floor. I hope this performance points to his continued development and more meaningful minutes down the road against stronger opposition.