Duke gets stunned in one of the biggest upsets of the season
Duke haters, prepare to have your day brightened.
The Blue Devils, ranked fourth in the nation at 19-3 (7-3 ACC) coming into Saturday’s game, marched into New York and Madison Square Garden to take on the St. John’s Red Storm, unranked and just 10-13 (0-11 Big East) as the game began.
After jumping out to a seven-point halftime lead, Duke was outscored 49-38 in the second half to fall 81-77.
The Red Storm went on a 32-14 run to start the second half and led by 11 with 8:36 to go, a margin they matched on a Tariq Owens layup with 6:38 on the clock; at that point the score was 68-57.
But Duke then did some running of its own, finishing the game on a 24-9 scoring jag and taking the lead back on a pair of free throws from Gary Trent Jr. at the 1:38 mark.
Shamorie Ponds made a layup and a 3-pointer to put St. John’s back in front 77-73 with 40 seconds remaining, and the wild race to the finish was on.
Well, as wild a race to the finish as a college game can be; there were still plenty of game-slowing free throws to be contended with.
Grayson Allen hit a 3 to bring Duke within a single point at 77-76 at the 36-second mark.
Owens then hit two clutch free throws to push the margin back to three.
Marvin Bagley III hit one-of-two from the line to make it a two-point game before Ponds split two free throws, Allen missed a three with eight seconds left, Owens made it a two-possession contest with two seconds left after hitting another one-of-two, and the game mercifully ended.
For Duke, it’s the second loss in the past eight days.
The first loss, against unbeaten-in-conference and 21-1 overall (not to mention national No. 2) Virginia, was understandable, a 65-63 squeaker at Cameron Indoor Stadium with an almost Final Four-like atmosphere and feel to the game.
But St. John’s? A sub-.500 team winless in its own conference?
As one commenter put it in ESPN’s game recap, “This is not a Duke University basketball team. This a bunch of talented players wearing the same jersey.”
Ponds led the Johnnies with 33 points on 12-of-23 from the field, while Owens had 17 and Bashir Ahmed had 19.
Duke was led by Allen’s 22 and Bagley’s 19, as the two combined to shoot an impressive 13-of-22 from the field in getting their 41 points.
The Blue Devils turned the ball over 18 times against just 11 from St. John’s, and the Red Storm took 65 shots in the game compared with just 51 for Duke; at the end of the day, that’s enough to make the difference between winning and losing.
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