Ball Durham
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Stock up, stock down from Duke’s first ACC loss of season to Clemson

By Kevin Connelly

Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Duke basketball head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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Duke basketball (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /

The Duke Basketball team lost its first ACC game of the season on Tuesday night as the Blue Devils looked flat and uninspired.

As the Duke Blue Devils look to put the loss on Tuesday night to the Clemson Tigers behind them, the focus will shift to a showdown in Cameron Indoor Stadium with the No. 11 Louisville Cardinals.

However, before our focus turns to Saturday evening, we look back one last time to Tuesday and dissect the play of several Blue Devils in another edition of ‘Stock Up, Stock Down’.

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Duke pulled off a no-show against Clemson and fell for the second time this season, 79-72.

The Blue Devils were out of position and lackadaisical on defense and not having Wendell Moore or Joey Baker available was not helpful to Duke’s cause.

Going into the game Duke knew it would be without Moore after he broke his hand in the win over Miami on January 4 that required surgery but news broke on Tuesday afternoon that Baker would not play after sustaining an ankle injury in practice.

Mike Krzyzewski rolled out another new starting lineup against Clemson with Tre Jones and Jordan Goldwire in the backcourt and Cassius Stanley, Matthew Hurt, and Vernon Carey Jr. in the frontcourt.

Hurt played the least amount of minutes of the starters, only logging 15, while Jack White came off the bench to play 28 minutes.

Javin DeLaurier and Alex O’Connell played 14 and 12 minutes, respectively.

ALSO READ: Why Duke starting five should change every game

The shooting numbers were not bad at all for the Blue Devils, shooting 50.0 percent from the field (27-of-54) and 40.0 percent from 3-point range (8-of-20) but only making 50.0 percent of its free throws (10-of-20) really sunk Duke.

The defense, however, was not good at all from the Blue Devils allowing Clemson to make 56.6 percent from the floor (30-of-53) and 42.1 percent from 3-point range (8-of-19).

It was an up-and-down performance from a variety of Duke basketball players but Tuesday night could have been a springboard for some Blue Devils.

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