The Duke Basketball team suffered its first home non-conference loss to the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks in overtime on Tuesday night.
Well, that wasn’t great.
No. 1 Duke was out hustled, out toughed, and out played at Cameron Indoor Stadium, losing to the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, 85-83 in overtime.
There were a lot of twists and turns just to get to overtime but tied at 83 Duke had the chance to hold for the final possession but with nine seconds to go Mike Krzyzewski opted not to use one of his two timeouts left and Tre Jones tried to find Matthew Hurt on the baseline with a bounce pass.
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The pass was tipped and a scrum on the floor ensued with the Lumberjacks coming away with the ball and Gavin Kensmil was able to find Nathan Bain from the seat of his pants who beat the buzzer and a Jack White block attempt to win the game.
To be blunt, no one associated with the Blue Devils had a good game, players and coaches included and credit to Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks were the more prepared and motivated team on Tuesday night.
In overtime the Duke defense was good, holding Stephen F. Austin to just four points but the Blue Devils were only able to score two points.
Kevon Harris led the way for the Lumberjacks with 26 points on 11-of-19 shooting as Stephen F. Austin forced Duke to turn the ball over 22 times.
Duke allowed 64 points in the paint to the Lumberjacks and the Blue Devils were 24-of-40 from the free throw line (60.0%).
The Blue Devils were led by Vernon Carey Jr. who had 20 points, 11 rebounds, and seven blocks but was not on the floor for the final two possessions of overtime despite being 8-of-10 from the floor.
Tre Jones logged his first double-double of his Duke career with 17 points and 12 assists but the sophomore guard had eight turnovers.
Duke didn’t deserve to win this game, and they didn’t but it is a long season and there appears to be no dominant team in college basketball this season.
It was the first game Duke lost to a non-conference at home since 2000 when the St. John’s Red Storm defeated the Blue Devils and it was the first time Duke lost to a non-major conference team as the AP No. 1 team.
The Blue Devils will lose its No. 1 ranking on Monday and can hopefully stay inside the Top-10 of the AP Poll.
Duke will play its last game as the No. 1 team in America, for the time being, on Friday night against Winthrop at Cameron Indoor Stadium at 7:00pm EST on the ACC Network.