Defensive breakdowns doom top-ranked Duke in stunning loss at Boston College
In its first 11 games so far this season, Duke has found a way to weather extended stretches of shoddy defense without suffering a loss.
On Saturday, in the second true road game of the season, an inability to string together stops finally caught up with the top-ranked Blue Devils.
Boston College’s trio of starting guards tore apart Duke’s defense, exposing flaws that the Blue Devils had previously masked by outscoring other opponents. Point guard Ky Bowman and wings Jerome Robinson and Jordan Chatman combined for all but 15 of the Eagles’ points in their stunning 89-84 upset.
It was Bowman who was Boston College’s catalyst, repeatedly using a high ball screen to force a bigger Duke defender onto him and then attacking off the bounce. Bowman torched the Blue Devils for 30 points on an array of driving layups and pull-up jump shots and finished one assist shy of a triple-double.
Whether Duke went with its trademark man-to-man or switched to a two-three zone, the Blue Devils still had too many breakdowns on pick and roll defense, too many late close-outs on 3-point shooters and too many missed rotations at the rim. A Boston College team undermanned in the frontcourt still scored an egregious 1.2 points per possession and sank 15 of the 26 threes it attempted.
Duke erased a 10-point second-half deficit and built a late 79-75 lead, but the Blue Devils were unable to finish strong like they did earlier this season in come-from-behind victories against Texas, Florida and Indiana. This time it was Boston College that showed more poise down the stretch, regaining the lead on a pair of late 3-pointers in the final three minutes from Robinson.
That Duke suffered a loss in its ACC opener is no huge surprise. The youthful Blue Devils start four freshmen around senior Grayson Allen and rely on freshmen and sophomores off the bench as well.
That the loss came at the hands of Boston College was a much bigger stunner. The Eagles had fallen in 25 straight games against Top 25 foes and while they’re improved this season, they’re still expected to finish near the bottom of the ACC.
One reason Duke was unable to overcome its poor defense on Saturday was that it showed its youth at the offensive end of the floor. The distribution of shots was all wrong against a Boston College team that lacked the interior size and strength to match up with Marvin Bagley and Wendell Carter.
Bagley, the early favorite to win national player of the year in college basketball and be taken No. 1 in the NBA draft, took just 11 shots and was quiet late in the game. By contrast, Allen attempted 20 shots and fellow wing Gary Trent Jr. hoisted 15 as Duke shot 8-for-30 from behind the arc.
Despite its sloppy defense, Duke was still within two in the final 30 seconds when freshman point guard Trevon Duval made another youthful mistake. He blatantly grabbed Bowman’s jersey away from the ball with 15.3 seconds to go, an intentional foul that enabled Robinson to sink two free throws and Boston College to keep possession.
Never again did Duke have another chance to tie or take the lead. Seconds later, the Boston College student section was spilling onto the court in celebration of a win few saw coming.
Thanks to a high-powered offense fueled by a handful of future NBA players, Duke doesn’t need an elite defense to be an elite team.
But the Blue Devils can’t be as bad defensively as they were Saturday, or they’ll be vulnerable often throughout ACC play.
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Jeff Eisenberg is a college basketball writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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