Defense fails, Duke falls to unranked Boston College in conference opener

Stuck in a tight game late against unranked Boston College on Saturday, No. 1 Duke was in familiar territory.

In previous games, the Blue Devils buckled down on defense, forced turnovers and went on offensive runs to close out as winners. But on this day, that spark never ignited.

Duke turned the ball over two times in the game’s final three minutes, while Boston College’s Jerome Robinson hit two clutch 3-pointers. Those two 3-pointers gave the Eagles an upset win over the top-ranked Blue Devils 89-84.

Afterward, freshman forward Marvin Bagley III, one of the most talented players in the country, sat by himself at his locker with his head in his hands.

“It sucks, man,” Bagley said. “Nobody wants to lose. I’m a competitive person. Everybody on this team is very competitive and losing is not what we want to do.”

But what had troubled the Blue Devils in some of its closer games this season, finally caught up to them: Defense.

“We’re not a good defensive team, but we haven’t practiced either,” Krzyzewski said. “All we’ve been doing is been playing 12 games. And we’re young. We’re talented. We’re not as deep. And we’re big. So that’s a different dynamic on how you have to play defense and what do you have to do.”

Boston College took advantage of Duke’s defensive lapses. Many of the 11, 3-pointers Boston College hit in the first half were wide open. They came from drives to the basket and kick outs to the open man. A few came after Boston College got an offensive rebound.

Coming into the game, Duke was the top rebounding team in the country. It averaged 46.5 rebounds per game.

But Boston College, even without its best rebounder, Deontae Hawkins (9.1 rebounds per game), out-rebounded the Blue Devils 35-34. Ten of Boston College’s 35 rebounds were offensive rebounds, that led to 15 second chance points.

Boston College finished the game 15-for-26 from behind the 3-point line, which is 57.7 percent.

“They hit tough shot after tough shot,” senior guard Grayson Allen, who finished with 14 points (5-for-20), said. “Bowman and Robinson made a bunch of tough shots, and we didn’t have an answer for them.”

Boston College was simply the better team Saturday. Not only did it out-rebound Duke, but it also out-shot the Blue Devils.

Bowman finished with a near triple-double: 30 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Robinson, a Raleigh native, who hit the two biggest shots of the game, finished with 24 points, 15 of which came in the second half. Both players said they grew up UNC Tar Heel fans, so to win this game meant a lot to them.

“Waking up this morning, I was all ready, excited for the game at 8:30 (a.m.),” Bowman said, “Woke up, ready to go.”

For the majority of players on Duke’s young team, how they respond to a loss is new. Only one player, Allen, played significant minutes last season.

“You tell the truth,” Krzyzewski said of what he tells his young players after a loss. “We told them the truth when they won their first 11 games too that we were behind in a few games and we came back, that we’re still learning. This is a very young basketball team that just happened to win and be tough in 11 games. And we played a really experienced perimeter today with a week of preparation.”

He said he told the players this time, that they got beat by a “really good basketball team.”

But Krzyzewski said his team has to produce when they get up by four points late in the game. He said they didn’t get the ball to the right people.

“We just have to learn from it,” he said.

Duke’s next game is 10 days away against Evansville at home. The Blue Devils take exams next week, and after that should have enough time to practice.

Bagley, who finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds Saturday, only scored five points in the second half. He said he thinks the loss will be good for the team.

“To go out there and experience that today, that should help us,” Bagley said. “We’re going to come back harder. Nobody in here likes that feeling of taking a L, so we’re going come back the next game and we’re going to really have to fight.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2017 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Defense fails, Duke falls to unranked Boston College in conference opener."