The Duke Basketball team was able to cap off an outstanding week with a comeback win over the Virginia Tech Hokies on Friday night.
On Friday night the Duke Blue Devils made the site experts of Ball Durham look like Nostradamus-es with their predictions for Friday night’s game, as the Blue Devils defeated Virginia Tech, 77-63.
In the first half, Duke looked tired and sluggish after traveling back to Durham from East Lansing on Tuesday night, arriving back on campus at 4:00am EST Wednesday morning and then heading out to Blacksburg on Thursday.
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Duke led 3-2 in the opening minutes but then trailed by as many as nine in the first half, and only able to cut the Hokies lead to one as the Blue Devils trailed by three entering the locker room.
It was more of the same as the second half started, but Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout as Virginia Tech went up seven in the first minute.
Duke responded by playing a smaller lineup and locking in on defense, which allowed the Blue Devils to go on a run and eventually take a lead.
Four straight points from Wendell Moore gave Duke a 50-47 lead, but the Hokies had a response in them, going on a 5-0 run to retake the lead, but two free throws by Vernon Carey Jr. followed by a jumper from Tre Jones gave the Blue Devils a lead they would not relinquish.
Vernon Carey Jr. saw his double-double streak end at seven straight games as the freshman was only able to post 12 points and five rebounds in just 15 minutes in Duke’s 77-63 victory.
The Blue Devils were led by Tre Jones who really came on strong in the second half, ending the night with 15 points, six rebounds, and four assists, but he had help from the play of Jordan Goldwire and Wendell Moore off the bench.
Goldwire played his best game of the season, finishing with ten points, six rebounds, two assists, and two steals while Moore had 12 points, five rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
Duke also saw the return of Cassius Stanley to the floor after injuring his hamstring just a week ago, and only missing one game, but the freshman did not look comfortable and only played seven minutes and was the only Blue Devil not to score in the victory.
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It’s unclear whether or not Stanley saw limited minutes because of his injury or if it was a scheme issue, but he will have time to heal up as Duke does not play for over a week.
After winning in East Lansing and Blacksburg in the span of four days, Duke just completed one of the best regular season weeks in recent memory after coming off one of the worst regular season weeks in recent memory.
Duke moves to 9-1 on the season and 1-0 in the ACC and won’t be on the court until December 19 when Wofford comes into Cameron Indoor Stadium.