Over the next week, we will be bringing you the best games of the 2017-18 season. Our first stop on the countdown is the overtime victory over Texas in the PK80 Tournament.
It was Zombie Duke, before we knew Zombie Duke.
The Blue Devils, down 12 at halftime, dug themselves a deeper hole being down 16 with 10 minutes to go. It looked for sure that Duke was going to be bounced early from the PK80 Invitational.
Then we got our first taste of how special Marvin Bagley III is.
Bagley put Duke on his back and led them back to take a one-point lead, before a Trevon Duval foul which led to Texas hitting a free throw to tie the game and send it into overtime.
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And in overtime, guess what? It was more of the MB35 show.
Duke scored 12 points in overtime, Bagley had eight of them.
For the game, Bagley finished with 34 points and 15 rebounds.
It was supposed to be a top recruiting matchup between Bagley and Texas star freshman Mo Bamba, but Bamba couldn’t stay out of foul trouble.
Bamba had 9 points and 10 rebounds in only 26 minutes. However, Bamba did not play in overtime, as he fouled out with 30 seconds left in regulation.
This was one of the early games in the season that Texas guard Andrew Jones played in. Jones would later be diagnosed with leukemia and ruled out for the rest of the season. Jones was excellent in this game with 16 points and 6 assists.
Andrew and his family will continue to be in our thoughts as he tries to beat cancer.
In what in this game that we truly got to see the potential of Bagley alongside Wendell Carter Jr.
Carter Jr. finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
The Blue Devils didn’t shoot the ball well from deep, 3 for 18, but still found a way to come back and win the game.
This would be the first of a long line of comebacks for Duke in the 2017-18 season and it cracks our Top-5 games of the year, just edging out the win over Florida State.