Conte Forum is not a secure haven for ranked opponents from the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Boston College guard Makai Ashton-Langford’s off-balance jumper spun out with one second remaining as No. 16 Duke held on to edge the spirited Eagles 65-64 earlier than a capability crowd.
BC had knocked off No. 20 Virginia Tech on Dec. 21 and bested Notre Dame final Tuesday. BC fell to 8-8 and 2-3 within the convention whereas the Blue Devils improved to 12-4, 3-2, together with a win over BC in Durham, N.C., on Dec. 3.
Center Quinten Post, who missed the sport in Durham, got here off the bench to steer the Eagles with 16 factors and 6 rebounds. Dariq Whitehead led Duke with 18
“We’ve always had a hard time playing here,” mentioned first-year Duke coach Jon Scheyer. “You come and it is a dogfight so I was not surprised by any of this and they are as strong and good a team as you can play in the ACC.”
Duke started enjoying like a high 25 crew firstly of the second half. Whitehead received the 13-5 run rolling with a 3-ball off the important thing. Center Kyle Filipowski had two reverse layups on the surge to place the Devils up 50-38 after the primary media timeout.
BC regrouped with eight straight factors, a run accentuated by Post’s nook trey that lower Duke’s result in 52-46 with 12:58 to play. BC prolonged the rally and tied the sport 54-54 on a transition layup by Zackery with 8:49 left.
“We were able to get out in transition because we were stopping them,” mentioned BC coach Earl Grant. “They we chasing us a lot in transition and never scored in that span and our players made good decisions with a good inside-outside punch.”
Duke maintained a slim lead from the foul line, hitting seven of eight to go up 61-57 with 2:20 to play. BC freshman Prince Aligbe canned a 3 and Post drained a turnaround within the paint to place BC up 64-63 with 28 seconds remaining. Filipowski put Duke again up 65-64 with two from the road with 12.4 second on the board.
“It was a possession game and we had chances,” mentioned Grant.
Duke loved an enormous top benefit and Scheyer went inside from the onset. Duke scored seven within the paint adopted by a Whitehead 3-ball to take a 10-6 lead into the primary media timeout.
Grant put Post into the combination to counter Duke’s bigs. Post, who missed the primary 13 video games with a foot harm, hit a 3 from the highest of the important thing to chop the result in 12-9.
The Eagles’ dedication to crew protection restricted Duke’s scoring alternatives and prevented any sustained runs. BC chipped away at Duke’s lead and tied the sport 21-21 on a drive by Jaeden Zackery on the third media timeout.
Scheyer put his beginning 5 again after the timeout and the Blue Devils put up eight unanswered factors. Whitehead hit a trey and received two on a baseline drive earlier than Mark Mitchell transformed a 3-point play to make it 29-21.
BC ahead Devin McGlockton netted a put again and Ashton-Langford hit a jumper to make it 29-25 into the ultimate media timeout. Post beat the buzzer with a baseline fadeaway to chop Duke’s result in 37-33 on the break.
Source: www.bostonherald.com