Duke basketball struggles against Oregon State, but Blue Devils pull out 54-51 win
The pretty plays weren’t there for No. 8 Duke on Thursday, with transition opportunities non-existent and 3-point shots clanking off.
The Blue Devils had to turn gritty, and big guys Kyle Filipowski and Ryan Young willed them to a win.
Each center recorded a double-double with Filipowski scoring 19 points and grabbing 14 rebounds as Duke rallied in the second half to beat Oregon State, 54-51, in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Young contributed 11 points while leading Duke (5-1) with 15 rebounds. No other Duke player scored in double-figures.
“If you don’t come out demonstrative and aggressive, all of a sudden it’s a dogfight,” Young said. “I think gritty was the right way to describe it. I’m proud of the way we were able to gut it out.”
Duke shot a woeful 20.7% in the second half to finish at 26.7% from the field for the game. That’s the lowest shooting percentage Duke has posted in a win in program history and only the fourth time the Blue Devils have shot below 30% and won a game.
“Their switching defense really hurt us,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “It stood us up. It really made us hesitant on offense. But the plays down the stretch, by Ryan Young, Kyle Filipowski and Jacob Grandison making two free throws, some big-time winning plays.”
Before the rally, thanks to all those Duke misses, Oregon State led by as many as six points in the second half despite shooting just 39.5% for the game.
A 13-5 Duke run, fueled mostly by Young and Filipowski, put the Blue Devils ahead 47-45.
But, after Jeremy Roach’s jumper in the lane with 7:33 to play, the Blue Devils went seven minutes without hitting a field goal.
Leading 50-49, though, Filipowski rebounded a Jacob Grandison miss to give Duke a 52-49 lead with 32.3 seconds left.
Dexter Akanno hit two free throws for Oregon State (3-2) with 16.1 seconds to play, trimming Duke’s lead to a point.
After Grandison answered with two free throws for Duke, Oregon State’s Jordan Pope and Glenn Taylor missed 3-pointers in the final five seconds allowing the Blue Devils to escape with the win.
“You have to find a way to gut it out and I’m proud of us figuring out a way to win,” Scheyer said. “That’s what our program has been about.”
Filipowski scored 13 of his game-high total in the game’s final 12 minutes.
“Coming in at halftime,” Filipowski said, “talking with the team, talking with the coaches, and things not going the right way. I know I can do so much better than everyone else. I think that just kind of brings a little fire into me.”
Duke hit only 5 of 29 3-pointers (17%) for the game, including 1 of 14 in the second half.
So it came down to fighting for rebounds and getting tough points inside to produce a win. The Blue Devils outrebounded Oregon State 45-29, grabbing 22 offensive rebounds of their own.
Mixing zone and man defenses, sometimes within possessions, Oregon State held its largest lead at 40-34 with 11:54 to play when Duke’s interior players finally got involved in the offense to mount a rally.
A 13-5 Duke run included eight points from Filipowski and three more from Young. Filipowski hit Duke’s lone 3-pointer of the second half at 8:21 tying the score at 45-all.
Roach put Duke in front, 47-45, with a tough shot in the lane with 7:33 to play. But that was Duke’s last field goal until Filipowski’s key put back in the final minute.
“When the game’s on the line, he’s not afraid,” Scheyer said. “The three, of course, was was huge for us to tie it. But those offensive rebounds that he had were were big time.”
After clinging to a 29-27 halftime lead despite 32% shooting, Duke opened the second half flat with six consecutive scoreless possessions.
That caused Scheyer to call a timeout with Oregon State up 33-29 lead with 16:42 to play.
But it didn’t help the Blue Devils’ struggles on offense. Duke missed its first nine shots of the half, starting 1 of 12 overall, as Oregon State built a 38-32 lead.
There would be no exciting Duke run, with fast-break points a plenty, to erase that deficit, though. The game saw only seven fast-break points between the two teams combined, with Duke netting four.
So, the tough guys stepped up.
Now Duke faces Xavier at 3:30 p.m. on Friday in the tournament semifinals.
This story was originally published November 24, 2022 at 5:17 PM.