DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – Grayson Allen banked in a shot at the buzzer, and Duke beat No. 7 Virginia 63-62 on Saturday. The Blue Devils travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to play the Demon Deacons again Sunday at 2 p.m at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and another strong defensive performance will be critical for Duke to get just its second win in five games.
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Freshman Brandon Ingram scored 25 points while Allen finished with 15 for the Blue Devils (19-6, 8-4), who won their fourth straight and kept the Cavaliers winless at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1995. After doing battle with the conference’s second-leading scorer (Allen), Virginia will get its first look this season at the league’s most prolific scorer in the Wolfpack’s Anthony Barber, who scored 30 of his career-high 38 points in the second half of Saturday’s 99-88 win over Wake Forest. Duke is up to No. 19 in the latest rankings and recovered from its stretch of four losses in five games by knocking off back-to-back ranked teams last week to extend the winning streak to four.
From there, there were three more ties and, in the game’s final 10 seconds, two memorable lead changes. They came into Saturday’s game versus No. 7-ranked Virginia at 6-4 in the ACC (5th in their conference).
Several years ago, I wrote an article for Keeping It Heel titled, “UNC Basketball History: My Top 5 Tar Heel Performers Against Duke”. Each of Duke’s previous two teams also dropped two of three at nearly the exact same spot in the schedule. This may be a bit of a surprise to some people, but Matt Jones will provide consistent play throughout the game and lead the Blue Devils in scoring. Allen is so aggressive, can get going into the lane and draw some fouls, but Ingram can rise up so we just had to pick our poison in a way.
Marshall Plumlee added “we all wanted Grayson to make the play”.
Two powerhouses returned to the ballot: Duke and Kentucky.
The three losses to Clemson, Notre Dame and Syracuse were decided by a total of 11 points. Bennett said the problems Ingram created showed up on the boards, where Duke outrebounded the Cavaliers 24-10 in the second half. Part of Virginia’s downfall versus Duke was poor 3-point shooting; the Cavaliers went 2-of-11 beyond the arc and London Perrantes, the conference’s top long-range shooter at 53.4 percent, did not attempt a 3-pointer. “You know they’re going to do something good”.
In the last two games, the Blue Devils have given up 1.016 points-per-possession, a marked improvement over 1.081 PPP they were giving up entering the day. They play Cincinnati and East Carolina this week having won their first 24 games by an average of almost 40 points.
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In the AP poll, the Sooners were followed by Iowa, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia.
