Duke Basketball: Virginia Tech Clips Blue Devils in Final Seconds

Duke traveled to Blacksburg in hopes of continuing their stretch of recent dominance, but unfortunately, poor play down the stretch and turnovers cost them the game.

All predictions had this as a Blue Devil victory, especially after that 74-52 victory Duke handed Virginia Tech just a few weeks ago in Durham.

As is this case in many of the Duke losses this year: turnovers, poor three-point shooting, and missed free throws is what led to this loss. Give Virginia Tech credit, but Duke should have come out victorious.

Down the stretch, Virginia Tech closed out the game on a 13-3 run to prevail over their ACC rival.

Duke has had troubles in the past with an always-tough Virginia Tech team, but this go around should have been different.

One key no call that sticks in this game is that hold by Kerry Blackshear Jr. on Wendell Carter Jr. when the score was 63-62 with 23 seconds left in the game.

This blown call could have potentially shifted the outcome of this game, but Duke should not have depended on that one missed possession to win this game.

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Duke was held scoreless for the remaining six-plus minutes and for a team with national title aspirations, that is unacceptable.

Duval also missed a critical one and one free throw that could have put the Blue Devils up by a field goal. That miss, along with the blown call on Carter Jr, ultimately helped Virginia Tech pull this 64-63 victory.

After an abysmal performance for Grayson Allen against Syracuse, he definitely showed up tonight pouring in 22 points.

On the other hand, his three-point percentage (4 of 15) was not impressive, especially with so many attempts from one player. Going forward, that is something that cannot happen.

Duke plays better when its starters are balanced and tonight that was not the case.

Once again, the Marvin Bagley critics will be in full effect, but he held his own in this game by putting up 12 points while shooting 5 of 9 from the field. This was not one of his typical games, but it was decent nonetheless.

As a team, the Blue Devils shot 8 of 28 from three and 11 of 15 from the free-throw line, including a late miss from Trevon Duval as noted earlier.

The turnovers continued to pile up for the Blue Devils with 18 in this game.

For Virginia Tech, this win adds to an already impressive resume as they now boast victories over then #10 North Carolina, #2 Virginia, #15 Clemson, and now #5 Duke. They will finish their ACC regular season on the road against Miami.

Luckily for Duke, they have an opportunity in their last regular season game at home to finish the season on a high note. Their Saturday matchup against #9 North Carolina has major ACC tournament seeding implications, as well as potential NCAA tournament seeding.

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