No. 14 Duke earns another ACC win. Three takeaways from Blue Devils’ win at Notre Dame
Of course it was Mark Mitchell who made the play that finally gave No. 14 Duke some breathing room against plucky Notre Dame on Saturday night.
On a night when the Blue Devils struggled to score, the 6-9 sophomore was everything for them, scoring a career-best 23 points with 14 rebounds in Duke’s 67-59 ACC basketball win at Purcell Pavilion.
Mitchell’s performance, which included scoring Duke’s first 14 points of the second half, rescued the Blue Devils (11-3, 2-1 ACC) on a night they shot a season-worst 35.6% from the field.
On a possession where Duke had already missed two shots, Mitchell’s rebound basket with 1:12 to play gave the Blue Devils a 61-55 lead and allowed them to finish off the Irish and extend their winning streak to six.
“ACC road wins are hard to get and hard to come by and you never take it for granted,” said Mitchell, who achieved his career-high scoring total for the second consecutive game following his 21 points when Duke beat Syracuse, 86-66, Tuesday night. “Tonight what we did coming out here and find a way to win, you know, obviously it wasn’t pretty, wasn’t the perfect game. We got the job done.”
Senior guard Jeremy Roach added 18 points for Duke while Jared McCain scored 11 points as the Blue Devils, after trailing by as many as nine in the first half, never trailed after taking a 29-27 halftime lead. The Blue Devils emerged victorious despite hitting just 8 of 26 3-pointers.
Notre Dame (6-9, 1-3 ACC) shot 39% with Markus Burton leading the Irish with 18 points. But the Irish played defense exceptionally well against a red-hot Duke team.
“The last five games we’ve scored in spurts pretty well,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “So I really credit what they did on defense. They made life hard for us. They’re physical. They’re tough. Offensively, they make you work.”
Here are three takeaways from Duke’s win:
How bad was Duke’s shooting?
Previously, the Blue Devils worst shooting performance of the season came Nov. 29 at Arkansas, when they shot 35.8% in losing 78-70 to the Razorbacks.
Prior to Saturday night, that was the only game this season Duke has failed to make at least 40% of its field goal attempts. The Blue Devils entered the game at Notre Dame having shot 50% or better in four of their previous five games.
Yet, Duke found a way to win.
“They put you in a lot of low shot clock situations,” Scheyer said. “And you have to have great discipline. I thought late in the clock, we got out of our stance a little bit. Some of those plays hurt and they add up through the game. But for our guys, I thought we showed amazing toughness.”
Filipowski’s struggles
The preseason ACC player of the year looked nothing like that type of talent Saturday night.
Filipowski missed his first seven shots from the field and didn’t score his first points until the 9:59 mark of the second half.
The 7-foot sophomore finished the night 2 of 12 from the field with seven points, five rebounds, four assists and a turnover.
Scheyer said Notre Dame’s physicality bothered his star player.
“He’s also has to finish better,” Scheyer said. “Some of that is him. He’s gonna continue to see defenses where they are physical. They double teamed him inside. Some of those times we got really good looks. Other times we didn’t handle it as well or he would just miss shots.”
That Duke found a way to win on a night its leading scorer and rebounder had such an off night is rather remarkable.
The first 50
Saturday night marked the 50th game with Scheyer as Duke’s head coach, with the Blue Devils posting a 38-12 record in his tenure.
No Duke coach has won more games in his first 50.
Eddie Cameron, whose name adorns Duke’s famed home arena, went 36-14 while Vic Bubas, who coached Duke to its first ACC Tournament title, went 35-15.
Mike Krzyzewski, on the way to an NCAA record 1,202 coaching wins, was just 26-24 in his first 50 games with Duke.
This story was originally published January 6, 2024 at 8:24 PM with the headline "No. 14 Duke earns another ACC win. Three takeaways from Blue Devils’ win at Notre Dame."