Duke basketball sneaks by horrid Notre Dame in front of Mike Krzyzewski

The Duke basketball team did not put an inspiring performance together against Notre Dame. 

Mike Krzyzewski made his return to Cameron Indoor Stadium for the first time since his retirement and the Duke basketball team made sure his Valentine’s Day was stressful.

Duke, riding a two game losing streak, ended the first half with a flurry to take an eight point lead, 31-23, against lowly Notre Dame into halftime.

It looked like the rout would be on in Durham as the Blue Devils would cruise to victory but Mike Brey would have different ideas.

The second half felt very much like Duke’s victory over Wake Forest two weeks ago.

Jon Scheyer’s team could not throw the closing punch on the Fighting Irish and left the struggling team hang around.

Duke led by as many as 14 points, 42-28, with 15:38 remaining but a 12-2 run from Notre Dame put them right back in contention for a road victory before the Blue Devils pushed its lead back to double-figures, 52-42, with 8:21 left.

A Jeremy Roach layup regained an eight point advantage for Duke, 60-52, with 2:54 on the clock but the Irish never quit until the final buzzer.

Notre Dame (10-16, 2-13 ACC) all of a sudden trimmed the Duke lead to one, 63-62, with 36.4 seconds left before Mark Mitchell would hit a dagger corner 3-pointer with 12.2 remaining to put the Blue Devils up by four.

Tyrese Proctor would finish off the game at the free throw line as Duke (18-8, 9-6 ACC) escaped with the victory, 68-64.

Duke basketball freshman bounces back in a major way

Kyle Filipowski had his worst game as a Blue Devil on Saturday against Virginia and injured his ankle on the controversial final play of regulation which would make him questionable for Tuesday’s game.

Filipowski ended the night with a team-high 22 points, six rebounds, and three assists on 9-of-16 shooting in 31 minutes.

ALSO READ: Duke hated rival defends Blue Devils against referees

The freshman forward was the only player for Duke to reach double figures, although eight of the nine players who took the floor scored at least two points.

Duke will now finish its stretch of three road games in four contest on Saturday (6:00p.m. ET, ESPN) against Syracuse (16-10, 9-6 ACC) before embarking on a three game home stand before its regular season finale rematch against North Carolina (16-10, 8-7 ACC).