Duke basketball falls to Miami in down-to-the-wire game. Blue Devils now 2-1 in ACC
No. 2 Duke turned in a sloppy night of offense and Miami shot lights out in the second half to upset the Blue Devils.
Duke turned the ball over a season-worst 17 times and the Hurricanes shot 57% in the second half to post a 76-74 ACC basketball win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“We’re not where I hope we’re going to be,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We played a fast, good and older team tonight. The story of the game was the turnovers. We played well at times and had an opportunity to win, but you have to finish though and we didn’t finish.”
Despite its issues taking care of the ball, the Blue Devils led 74-71 with 45 seconds left on Paolo Banchero’s dunk. But Miami’s Charlie Moore scored on a driving layup with 33.3 seconds remaining while drawing a foul.
Moore missed the free throw but Miami’s Jordan Miller secured the rebound. Kameron McGusty scored inside with 22.8 seconds left to give the Hurricanes a 75-74 lead.
After Trevor Keels missed a shot in the lane with 12 seconds left, Isaiah Wong’s free throw put Miami up 76-74 with eight seconds left. The Blue Devils missed two shots, 3-pointers by Moore and Keels, in the final seconds to suffer their first home loss of the season.
Moore led Miami (13-3, 5-0 ACC) with 18 points while Miller had 17 and Wong 15.
Banchero paced Duke (12-2, 2-1 ACC) with 20 points while Wendell Moore and Mark Williams had 10 points each.
With Williams scoring six points over the first six minutes after halftime, Duke turned a halftime tie in a 48-43 lead over Miami.
But the Hurricanes fired back with nine consecutive points to take a 56-52 lead. When McGusty turned a Duke turnover into a layup with 9:14 to play, Miami lead 60-54.
With Charlie Moore’s deep 3-pointer with 8:34 to play, the Hurricanes led 63-57 and had hit 13 of 19 shots in the second half.
Griffin ignited Duke with a rebound basket off his own miss before taking a pass from Williams for a dunk. Trevor Keels hit two free throws with 6:38 left to tie the score at 63.
Wong and Miller scored the game’s next two baskets inside, giving Miami a 67-63 lead with 4:54 to play.
Despite a difficult first half on offense, Duke found itself tied with Miami 32-all at halftime.
Both teams built leads as large as eight points in the first 20 minutes and both teams frittered them away.
Duke shot 34.5% from the field and committed 13 turnovers. This from a team that entered the game having averaged just 9.4 turnovers per game this season.
Coaches back at full strength
For the first time since Nov. 30, Duke had its full coaching staff on the bench for a game.
Director of player development Amile Jefferson completed his COVID-19 isolation and was back with the team for the Miami game.
Duke had been without Chris Carrawell for three December games while he recovered from knee replacement surgery. Nolan Smith missed two December games due to COVID health and safety protocols.
When the Blue Devils beat Georgia Tech, 69-57, Tuesday night in their first game since Dec. 22, Jefferson was absent.
He did what?
JJ Redick made 91.2% of his free throws during his Duke career from 2002-06 on the way to becoming the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,769 points.
Back at Cameron to watch Duke play Miami, Redick was chosen to shoot a free throw during a halftime event. During each game, one person is chosen to shoot with Duke Children’s Hospital getting a $1,000 donation if the shot is made.
The crowd cheered wildly when Redick was introduced. It grew silent as he lined up his shot. And it groaned when his shot clanged off.
This story was originally published January 8, 2022 at 10:10 PM.