Duke basketball responds with impressive victory over No. 25 Ohio State
The Duke basketball team responded with a much needed victory over Ohio State.
There was no time for the Duke basketball to sulk in its loss to Purdue, which jumped to No. 5 in the AP Top-25 Poll, on Sunday night.
The No. 17 Blue Devils had to board its flight back to Durham and prepare for a tough, physical Ohio State team coming off of an impressive weekend in the Maui Invitational in order to avoid a two game losing streak and ending the month of November with an unprecedented three losses.
A back-and-forth first half titled in favor of Duke with a 14-7 run to enter the locker room with a 39-29 lead and the Blue Devils never looked back despite multiple efforts from the No. 25 Buckeyes (5-2), who trimmed the Duke lead to five on three occasions in the second half.
Duke (7-2), behind a three point play from Kyle Filipowski, used a 9-5 run to end the game to emerge with the 81-72 victory.
Filipowski battled foul trouble in the second half but still manage to log 30 minutes in the win while adding a team-best 16 point and seven rebounds to the winning cause.
Five different Blue Devils reached double figures on Tuesday night, including a career night from Dereck Lively II.
Lively, who also had some foul issues, looked the most comfortable on the floor this season with a career-high 11 points, five rebounds, one assist, two blocks, and a steal on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor and connecting on all three free throw attempts.
The five-star center also scored his first two field goals of the season that were not dunks in the game with a pair of layups.
Duke basketball with much better shot selection
The Blue Devils made a much more concerted effort to not hoist 3-pointers throughout the game, unlike some of its games in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament.
Duke only took 13 attempts from beyond the arc, connective on five of them, and found ways to work the ball into the paint and create opportunities to get to the free throw line.
Jon Scheyer’s team was 26-of-30 from the charity stripe and 25-of-55 from the field.
Duke will jump into conference play on Saturday afternoon (4:00p.m. ET, ACC Network) as Boston College (5-3) comes into Cameron Indoor Stadium.