Defense and hustle plays lead No. 4 Duke over No. 3 Kansas in opener

The Duke Basketball team used key contributions from the entire roster as the No. 4 Blue Devils defeated the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks in the Champions Classic.

Duke and Kansas continued its a trend of having close, hard-fought games between the two teams and that didn’t change in the Champions Classic on Tuesday evening.

A sold-out Madison Square Garden got to witness a classic between the No. 4 Blue Devils and No. 3 Jayhawks that tipped-off the college basketball season.

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Duke kept the same starting five as it did from its second exhibition game against Fort Wayne in Tre Jones, Jordan Goldwire, Cassius Stanley, Matthew Hurt, and Vernon Carey Jr.

The two teams went back-and-forth in the first half, Duke leading by as many as five points and Kansas once holding a four-point lead, but it was the Blue Devils who took the lead entering halftime at 33-30.

In the second half, the Blue Devils would throw the first punch, extending its lead to five in the opening minutes, but Kansas would respond with a haymaker of its own, pushing Duke to the brink.

After leading 37-32, Duke would find itself trailing 43-37 two minutes and seventeen seconds later.

The Jayhawks extended its lead to nine with the Blue Devils looking confused and lifeless on offense, Kansas had a chance to lay the hammer and run Duke out of Madison Square Garden, but Duke quickly showed its toughness, responding to Kansas’ run.

A three-pointer from Vernon Carey Jr. followed by a three-pointer from Jack White put Duke right back in the game, with its deficit back down to three.

Now down by four, Tre Jones came up with a steal and found a streaking Cassius Stanley down the floor to throw down a monster dunk and then on the next possession the same exact thing happened again, sending the Blue Devil faithful into a frenzy at The Garden, as the game was tied.

Stanley was no where close to done as the freshman gave the Blue Devils the lead a few minutes later with a huge three-pointer and then converted an and-one with under 2:30 to play which gave Duke a 62-61 lead that they would not relinquish.

Tre Jones scored the last six points for the Blue Devils, four coming at the free throw line to ice the game and one elbow jump shot that gave Duke a 64-61 lead with just over a minute left to play.

Duke’s defense was stifling, forcing Kansas into 28 turnovers, the most turnovers Duke forced since 2009, the second most turnovers forced by Duke against a ranked opponent since 2006, and the most turnovers forced by Duke against a top-five team since 1979, according to DukeMBBStats.

Mike Krzyzewski used his depth, playing nine players and using eight of those players for more than 14 minutes in the victory.

Despite it being the first game of the season, this was a huge win for the Blue Devils as it showed what the team is made of and like in previous years, the team is never out of a game. Duke had a chance to fold, but rallied to get itself back in the game and made the winning plays down the stretch.

The No. 4 Duke Blue Devils are 1-0 on the season and will get back on the court on Friday night in its home opener against Colorado State at 7:00pm EST and the game can be seen on the ACC Network.