Duke Defeats Notre Dame Down The Stretch With Coach K In Attendance

DURHAM, NC — Duke Blue Devils forward Kyle Filipowski scored 22 points as Duke defeated Notre Dame 68-64 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night (Feb. 14).

Duke (18-8, 9-6 ACC) improves to 13-0 at home as they have yet to lose in Cameron Indoor Stadium since UNC defeated them last year in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s last home game. Today, Krzyzewski returned to Coach K’s court for the first time since that historic day.

“It’s always a pleasure to see him,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer told the media afterward. “He’s obviously welcome any time and we’d love to have him here again before the season is over.” It should be mentioned that Coach Krzyzewski celebrated his 76th birthday yesterday and attended the game today on Valentine’s Day with his wife of 54 years, Mickie.

Duke came into this game fresh off a gut-wrenching 69-62 road loss to No. 8 Virginia in overtime this past Saturday. This game of course came down to the wire and was decided by a controversial no-call by the officials on Kyle Filipowski which resulted in overtime.

The ACC came out with a statement following the game stating, “Upon review of the final play of regulation, the ACC has announced an incorrect adjudication of the playing rules. The play should have resulted in two free throws for Duke.”

The matchup remained close throughout the entire first half as Notre Dame’s Cormac Ryan and Duke’s Dariq Whitehead traded three-pointers back and forth. Whitehead, who was playing in just his second game since returning from a lower leg injury, scored all nine of his points in the first half which came from beyond the arc.

The Blue Devils went into the halftime break on a 15-6 run and led the Irish 31-23.

At the start of the second half, Blue Devils big man Kyle Filipowski began to heat up, scoring 12 of his 22 points in the second period. Filipowski came into this game listed as questionable due to an ankle injury he suffered in the final seconds of regulation of his no-call against Virginia.

Duke had zero answers for Notre Dame (10-16, 2-13 ACC) guard Dane Goodwin, who scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half. Goodwin scored 17 straight points for the Irish as Notre Dame brought the game within two with less than two minutes to go.

With just 12 seconds remaining in regulation, Blue Devils guard Jeremy Roach found Mark Mitchell in the corner for a game-sealing jump shot to give Duke a four-point lead.

“I’ve been shooting that shot a lot this week,” Mitchell told me after the game. “I shoot a ton of corner threes a day knowing that I’ll get most of my looks in the corner. So when Jeremy started to drive left I was just ready to take it.”

Duke looks to keep the ball rolling on the road this Saturday as the Blue Devils take on Syracuse at 6 PM ET on ESPN.