Duke has never had an undefeated season in basketball and it’s not going to have one now as Texas Tech tagged the Blue Devils with their first loss of the season Saturday, 81-80. And Texas Tech totally
deserved that win, too.
The Red Raiders started off well, going up 9-0 before Duke pushed back. Nik Khamenia hit a three then a two as Duke gradually pushed back into contention, taking the lead at 19-18. Toss in first-half foul trouble for JT Toppin and a 10-point halftime lead and a Duke win seemed inevitable, given that the Blue Devils have been a second-half team all season.
Didn’t happen.
Although Duke had some great moments in this game, individually and collectively, in the second half, Texas Tech was the tougher team.
Duke was up 58-41 with 16:31 left to play and Toppin picked up his fourth foul with 15:09 to go.
Everything was going Duke’s way – until it wasn’t.
LeJuan Watts and especially Christian Anderson kept fighting, and scoring, and Texas Tech closed the gap not once but twice.
Anderson got a layup with 10:06 left to cut the lead to 63-61. Duke rebuilt the lead t0 11 and then Anderson hit a long three. Then he hit another three to cut the lead to 74-69. Toppin hit another basket to make it 74-71, then Anderson hit another three to make it a two point game again at 76-74.
Toppin tied the game 76-76 and then put the Red Raiders up 78-77. Anderson then converted a three point play to make it 81-80.
Boozer split a pair of free throws to tie it up and then Anderson split a pair of his own to give Tech an 82-81 lead with 1.6 left. Boozer did get a 25 foot shot off, but it missed and appeared to be after the buzzer anyway, so probably wouldn’t have counted.
That’s the basics. Aside from all that, Duke’s inability to stop the Red Raiders, and particularly Anderson, led to a 46 point second half.
Duke’s defense has been outstanding this season, but in the last two games, the Blue Devils gave up 73 against Lipscomb and now a season-high 81 by Texas Tech.
Duke defended the three well in the first half, holding the Red Raiders to just 1-9.
They finished 7-22 as Jaylen Petty and Donovan Atwell both hit one. The rest were all by Anderson, who finished with 27 points total.
Even putting that aside, the Blue Devils had a significant problem from the foul line, where they arguably lost the game, hitting 59%. Duke left 12 points on the free throw line. Just a few would have been the difference.
Boozer shot 5-14, Pat Ngongba was 2-5 and Caleb Foster was 0-2.
That’s uncharacteristic for this team, and it cost them.
There were some good things here though. Dame Sarr hit three threes and played really well, his foolish technical aside (he was woofing at the Texas Tech bench after one of his threes). Duke got 34 points off the bench too, including 13 from Cayden Boozer. It wasn’t his career high – he got 14 against Western Carolina – but it was his best offensive performance because Texas Tech is far better than the Catamounts.
Did it make up for poor offensive outings by Ngongba and Isaiah Evans, who attempted just four shots and hit only one – and no threes?
No, but it was still a great sign for this team.
Duke also got some tremendous play from Maliq Brown, who finished with 7 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals and a block and an assist.
Cam Boozer finished with 23 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists. However, in his last two games he has ten turnovers, some of them inexplicable for a player with such a high basketball IQ.
The upshot?
Better now than next week.
ACC play starts on Wednesday as Duke takes on Georgia Tech in Cameron, followed by trips to Florida State and Louisville. If you look at this loss as the end of the world, you’re going to have a miserable weekend. If you look at it like a critical stress test however, it makes more sense.
Duke needed a lot more from Evans, from Ngongba and Khamenia, and certainly needed some one to step up against Anderson and, to a lesser extent, Watts and Toppin. Texas Tech went from 1-9 on threes in the first half to 7-22, finishing at 32%. Worse, however, they shot 32-58%, shredding Duke’s vaunted defense, particularly inside.
These are fixable problems, and better to have them before Christmas than in January and beyond.
Notes – in his last four games, Evans is 7-23 from behind the line…toss out Lipscomb and he’s 3-16…Ngongba was aggressive at times, but not in the right ways…Khamenia has gotten pretty banged up in December…you wonder if he’s 100%…Ngongba finished with triple fours – 4 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists…this was one of Cayden Boozer’s better games and he showed great instincts late…all in all, this wasn’t a great game for Duke but it could be a catalyst for much better things to come, assuming the correct lessons are drawn…
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