‘We deserved to lose’: How No. 1 Duke suffered humiliating loss to Stephen F. Austin
Duke’s players and coaches couldn’t talk enough about the toughness it showed last Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
A hard-fought 81-73 win over Georgetown had the No. 1 Blue Devils feeling invincible, proud of the way they battled an opponent that tried unsuccessfully to shove them around.
That toughness got caught between the moon, er, well, Durham and New York City.
That left Stephen F. Austin the team wanting to win more than the Blue Devils when they played at Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday night.
An 85-83 overtime win for the Lumberjacks, a stunning loss that’s Duke’s first at home against a non-conference opponent since February 2000, was the result.
“It’s my responsibility, obviously,” Krzyzewski said. “We did not respond well to winning in New York. No matter what we said to our team, my feeling is they thought they were just going to win.”
The Blue Devils (6-1), dejectedly sitting in front of their lockers postgame, swore they didn’t think the game would be easy. Even Krzyzewski doesn’t think they thought that.
Duke’s ‘fight’ was missing
But the fight that’s been the hallmark of so many Duke teams disappeared after the Blue Devils built a 15-point lead over the game’s first 11 minutes.
“They just assume you’re going to win instead of being in a fight to win,” Krzyzewski said. “The way the first half went, you could tell that team (Stephen F. Austin) was well prepared and tough. They’re old and good and well-coached. They have a good tradition. We didn’t respond at timeouts or halftime to a different level of emotion and we lost.”
Stephen F. Austin is no shrinking violet as basketball programs go. The Lumberjacks have played in four of the last six NCAA tournaments, winning games while seeded No. 12 and No. 14.
They entered Cameron Indoor Stadium with a 4-1 record, having lost 69-57 at Rutgers six nights earlier.
Duke proceeded to do what it usually does against teams from conferences like the Southland, distancing itself with a 33-18 lead.
Kevon Harris punched right back with three consecutive baskets for the Lumberjacks. The final two were breakaway layups after turnovers by Duke’s Matthew Hurt and Vernon Carey.
Too many turnovers
Those two things -- layups and turnovers -- proved to be key factors in the upset coming together.
Duke turned the ball over 22 times, including six times in overtime when it only attempted four shots.
Stephen F. Austin made 27 layups and three dunks among its 36 made field goals. The Lumberjacks scored 64 points in the paint against a Duke team that entered the night having allowed an average of 60.9 total points over its first six games.
Throw in Duke’s poor free throw shooting -- 24 of 40 overall but 11 of 24 (45 percent) after halftime -- and there’s how this unthinkable loss happened to Duke.
“It’s just a recipe to lose,” Krzyzewski said. “So we weren’t deserving of winning. They were deserving of winning and they won.”
Prior to overtime, Duke played well offensively. The Blue Devils shot 50 percent overall and had four double-figure scorers in Vernon Carey (20) and Tre Jones (17) along with Cassius Stanley and Matthew Hurt scoring 15 each.
Jones and Carey had double-doubles, with Jones dishing out 12 assists and Carey grabbing 11 rebounds.
But Jones, the normally steady sophomore point guard, had eight turnovers.
“I think it was our toughness, really,” Jones said. “They were an extremely tough team coming in, but when we let them back in the game they gained a ton of confidence and that allowed them to play harder and harder.”
Krzyzewski called a first-half timeout as the Lumberjacks were cutting into the deficit, taking advantage of Duke’s sloppy play. Yelling at the team, he asked them, in colorful language, just what was going on.
Game stayed close before OT
Duke responded here and there but never with the kind of consistency needed to put the game away.
It looked like Jones struck a dagger into the Lumberjacks with 10:14 to play when his 3-pointer gave Duke a 60-54 lead.
But Stephen F. Austin scored on its next six possessions, taking a 64-62 lead on two Cameron Johnson free throws with 8:08 to play.
From that point on, no team led by more than three points. Duke never led by more than two points.
After Jones hit two free throws with 29 seconds left for an 81-79 Duke lead, the Blue Devils had a chance to seal the win with a defensive stop.
But Harris found Gavin Kensmil open under the basket for an uncontested layup with 18 seconds left to tie the game.
And Duke never led again.
“We just felt like they outfought us tonight and that’s what hurts,” Duke senior forward Jack White said. “That’s our identity. No one plays harder than us. No one defends harder than us. I know we all regret it right now.”
With that, the Blue Devils head off in search of their lost toughness, knowing there’s so much more to accomplish in front of them.
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 2:24 AM.