Duke Hands Virginia First Loss of the Season

After a very tough week for Duke losing a tight game at Notre Dame, the dismissal of junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon from the team, and a huge game against undefeated Virginia in Charlottesville, the Blue Devils were able to come together despite adversity to upset #2 UVA 69-63 to give the Cavaliers their first loss of the season at a sold-out John Paul Jones Arena.

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Duke led by one point entering halftime up 26-25 after an excellent first half by freshman Justise Winslow, but trailed Virginia for most of the second down by as many as 11 points. The Cavs shot out to a 16-4 run right after halftime. Duke was down by 9 with just over 5 minutes to go, but out-scored Virginia 22-7 to close out the game. After struggling to shoot the three for most of the game, the Blue Devils suddenly began hitting them in the last 5 minutes of the game when it mattered most. After going 0-4 in the 1st half, Duke made 6-13 in the 2nd (5-6 in the last 5 minutes) with 3 from Quinn Cook- including the go-ahead shot to give Duke the 66-63 with 1:20 left in the game, 1 from Matt Jones, and 2 from freshman Tyus Jones, including the dagger to seal the game for Duke.

This Virginia team is one of the best defensive teams in the NCAA, only giving up an average of 50.2 points per game, which is best in the nation. Defensively, Coach K continued to experiment with different schemes starting off with man-to-man and switching between 2-3 zone, 3-2 zone, and 2-3 zone with Winslow playing power forward next to Jahlil Okafor. The last defense worked  very well for the Blue Devils, after Virginia was able to take advantage of the high post against the 2-3 zone with Amile Jefferson. Guard Malcolm Brogdon led Virginia with 17 points and 6 rebounds.

Tyus Jones led Duke with 17 points and Justise Winslow, who had been struggling for a stretch of a few games, was very aggressive offensively and finished with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. Quinn Cook also had 15 points and Jahlil Okafor finished with a 10 point-9 rebound performance after he was limited to only 2 points and 3 turnovers in the first half.

Matt Jones had an impact on the game for Duke, finishing with 9 points off of the bench. The Blue Devils will be looking for him to score more with the loss of Sulaimon and the lack of depth for the team with only 8 scholarship players available. Grayson Allen only scored 1 point in his first extended action since the beginning of the season and only attempted 1 shot, but will hopefully be able to become more integrated in the offense and confident with his shot during the rest of ACC competition and the NCAA Tournament.

Duke is now 2-0 in match-ups against Top 5 teams on the road this season, winning at then-#2 Wisconsin to give the Badgers their first loss of the season and at #2 Virginia last night. The Blue Devils will return to action Wednesday Feb. 4th to take on Georgia Tech back in Cameron Indoor Stadium for their first home game since Coach K won his 1,000th game against St. John’s in Madison Square Garden.

Game MVP: For the first half, Justise Winslow led the Blue Devils and had a game-high 11 points and 6 rebounds at the break. After Winslow got into some foul trouble later on in the 2nd, Tyus Jones lived up to his big-game reputation and finished with 17 points, 4 assists, and 4 rebounds, scoring 11 in the second half.