Our House.
Duke defeated NC State 71-67 Tuesday night to complete a 16-0 home season, the program’s first undefeated home season since 2013-’14. The win is Duke’s fifth straight overall and moves the Blue Devils to 13-6 in the ACC, 22-8 overall.
Duke led the final 28 minutes, by as much as 12 points in the second half. But they never could find an answer for Jarkel Joiner (26 points, 6-12 on 3s) and saw that lead shrink to three points in the final minute. But Duke didn’t turn it over against some pretty intense pressure and Tyrese Proctor knocked down four foul shots as Duke got the separation it needed.
Duke won on two staples, defense and rebounding. Everyone State player other than Joiner shot 17 for 50 from the field. That’s 34%. And led by Kyle Filipowski (11 points, 14 rebounds), Dereck Lively II (12 rebounds) and Ryan Young (six rebounds in 11 minutes), Duke controlled the glass, 44-35.
“Obviously offensive rebounding is something we take a lot of pride in,” Young said.
“They did a great job offensive rebounding the ball and we didn’t do so well blocking them out,” Kevin Keatts acknowledged.
Duke also used its size on D.J. Burns, double-teaming him at times and forcing him into a 2 for 10 shooting effort in the second half.
Burns had 13 points on the night.
“They have great size,” Keatts said. “They did a good job with their length. They made him shoot over length. They brought the double teams at the right moment.”
“We wanted to send him different looks,” Young said. “He’s really smart and good with his body so we wanted to throw some different looks and put some pressure on him.”
Scheyer credited Lively for the job he did on Burns.
“Dereck just did a great job battling him. It’s such a luxury for us to have Dereck Lively and Ryan Young, two very different players. Ryan can be very physical when he’s in and Dereck obviously with his length and instincts and timing, they just did a great job.”
The teams traded baskets early. State’s last lead was at 17-15 but neither team had more than a one-possession lead until a 9-0 run put Duke up 24-15. But Joiner scored five quick points and any thoughts of a quick knock-out evaporated.
Filipowski stopped the bleeding with a three-point play, Proctor hit a pull-up jumper and Duke led 33-29 at the half.
There were some strange stat lines in the first 20 minutes. Duke hit 1 for 9 from beyond the arc and had only three assists.
Neither of those improved in the second half.
Duke found other ways to score.
Jeremy Roach kept getting to the basket and Duke kept getting to the line. Roach ended 0-5 on 3s but 9-14 on 2s, mostly on aggressive drives.
“Doing whatever the team needs me to do,” he summed up. “My job tonight was to finish and get us some buckets. We knew Burns was going to be in drop coverage so we wanted to attack him. We wanted to screen him off and attack downhill and I think that worked out nicely.”
Roach scored inside to put Duke up 48-44, 50-44, 56-47, 63-53 and 65-53. After State cut the deficit to four points, at 65-61, he knocked down two huge foul shots. Joiner hit another 3 but Proctor took care of business and Joiner’s final 3 was meaningless.
“Down the stretch Jeremy really made some key plays,” Scheyer said. “He’s a winner. He’s been through it. This is the most consistent he’s played. We ask a lot of him. He has a knack for making timely baskets.”
Roach has scored 69 points in Duke’s last four games.
Mark Mitchell added 12 points and five rebounds.
“We just played really good defense,” he said “They hit some really tough shots but over-all we followed the game plan.”
So, North Carolina Saturday night in the Dome, then Greensboro and points to be decided.
But nobody wants to play this team.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Scheyer said, “the growth we’ve made this season, the perseverance. To represent Cameron Indoor Stadium this way is a big deal.”
Are we ever going to talk about the (seemingly?) very high rate at which Kyle filipowski 1) misses very close shots, and 2) turns the ball over whilst trying to do too much dribbling and/or spinning?
He is both a very precocious freshman and important player for us, and I’m not sure we can reliably win without him. But, he also tends to do some pretty questionable things with some regularity. I think he is who he is at this point if the season. (And, sadly for us fans, we may not get another.)
But I hope against hope he will turn a corner regarding the missed shots and turnovers. He could *easily* be scoring 4-8 more points a game.