Sleep Walkers: Late push lifts Duke basketball over Boston College

63. 434. 55. 431. Final

The Duke basketball team used a late push to escape from the Conte Forum with a victory in what was a very ugly game against Boston College.

Well, the game tape from Tuesday night’s game between Duke and Boston College certainly won’t be heading over to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

However, one clip will make several highlight reels as Jack White threw a poor alley-oop to Cassius Stanley but the freshman high-jumper floated to throw down yet another jaw-dropping dunk.

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Other than that, this game was a big ‘yikes’.

The two teams were a combined 3-of-33 from 3-point range. Duke was 1-of-15 and Boston College was 2-of-18.

Boston College was leading by four, 47-43, and Mike Krzyzewski called timeout.

The lone Duke 3-pointer came from Joey Baker following that timeout and it was the spark the Blue Devils needed to rally past a very, very poor Boston College team.

Baker scored all of his eight points in a four minute span and didn’t miss from the field, going 3-of-3 with one made 3-pointer. The sophomore wing did miss one of two free throws, but two of his made baskets were ‘and-one’s’.

The Eagles led Duke by three points at halftime and if the Blue Devils were playing any other opponent, it probably would have been close to a 20-point deficit.

Duke was on the ropes after Vernon Carey Jr. picked up four fouls mid-way through the second half, but it was Baker who gave the Blue Devils an extra life and Tre Jones closed the deal in the final four minutes to give Duke a 63-55 victory.

Jones ended up leading the Blue Devils with 18 points and finishing 7-of-15 from the field, after starting the game 4-of-12.

The sophomore point guard also had three rebounds and four assists while going 4-of-5 from the free throw line despite missing all three of his 3-point attempts.

Vernon Carey Jr. picked up his eleventh double-double on the season with 17 points and ten rebounds on just 5-of-13 shooting due to an excessive amount of missed layups but the freshman did go 7-of-8 from the free throw line.

Matthew Hurt did not play in the second half after going 1-for-6 in the first half and that’s after Hurt scored his career high 25 points against Boston College back on December 31.

Ex-Blue Devil Derryck Thornton responded to his poor game in Cameron when these two teams first met and led Boston College with 21 points, but he was unable to complete the back-to-back wins against the Tobacco Road powerhouses.

The reasoning for why Duke struggled on Tuesday night is confusing. Was it because they already defeated Boston College by 39-points earlier in the season? The travel going from Syracuse to Durham early Sunday morning and then Durham to Boston on Monday?

Regardless, a win is a win and Duke must learn from the many mistakes made and move on to the next game.

Duke (19-3, 9-2 ACC) will head back to Durham and prepare for the biggest rivalry of the season against the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday, February 8 at 6:00pm EST on ESPN.

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