Duke basketball will play Saturday after all. Here’s who the Blue Devils will face
After the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic knocked Duke’s basketball schedule out of whack on Wednesday, the school promptly found another opponent to keep things going.
With Cleveland State have paused its program due to positive COVID-19 cases, and thus unavailable for Saturday’s 4 p.m. game with the No. 2 Blue Devils, Duke will instead play Loyola (Maryland) at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The game is still scheduled for 4 p.m. and will be televised by ACC Network. Tickets and parking passes issued for the Cleveland State game will be honored for the Loyola (Maryland) game, the school said in a news release.
On Wednesday, Cleveland State’s athletics department announced its team wouldn’t be able to play scheduled games Saturday at Duke or Tuesday at Kent State.
Duke’s administration began contacting schools available for a last-minute trip to Durham this weekend. After holding discussions with a few, a contract was executed with Loyola (Maryland) on Thursday for Saturday’s game.
The Greyhounds (6-5) last played on Sunday, beating Hampton, 67-54. This is their second trip to the Triangle this season. North Carolina beat Loyola (Md), 83-67, in the season-opener for both teams on Nov. 9.
The Blue Devils (8-1) will play Appalachian State on Thursday at 7 p.m. as had been originally scheduled. After Saturday’s game with Loyola (Maryland), Duke next plays its ACC opener Wednesday against Virginia Tech at 9 p.m. at Cameron.
This story is developing and will be updated.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 11:05 AM.