Blue Devils have response game against Charlotte

DURHAM – The losses hurt the win-loss column for Duke.

Moving forward, though, means turning those losses into learning points.

The past week, with the Blue Devils picking up the pieces and regathering, was what they needed — culminating in an 80-56 win over Charlotte on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“It’s been … I’m trying to find the right word. It’s been good for us,” sophomore Kyle Filipowski said. “Just kind of getting kicked in the butt a little bit. I think we’re really trying to find ourselves, learn more about ourselves this past week.”

Focal points leaving Duke’s loss at Georgia Tech a week ago were simple: The Blue Devils (6-3) weren’t tough enough defensively and weren’t sharing the ball on offense.

Those were the characteristics of a five-point loss at Arkansas and that four-point loss in Atlanta.

On Saturday, the 49ers (5-4) shot 40.4% (21 of 52) and had more turnovers (11) than assists (nine). In building a 23-point lead in the first half, Duke had three instances of stringing together three straight defensive stops.

“I’m proud of the response that our team had,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “The last few games, last week, we weren’t good enough. That means everybody, coaches, players, that includes everybody. This week was about getting back to work.

“I thought we had the best week of practice we’ve had so far this year.”

Scheyer said it was on everybody; Filipowski made a point about one specific area.

Ball movement was key and a week of emphasizing it paid off. Ten of Duke’s first 13 field goals were assisted; the Blue Devils had 11 assists in the entire game against Georgia Tech.

“The coaches are putting us in the perfect position to be successful and do what’s right,” Filipowski said. “I think it was more on the players. We weren’t being intentional enough with sticking to the game plan and playing for each other.

“I think there was starting to be more selfish basketball playing there.”

Maybe the most-impressive aspect there was Duke playing without its point guard. Sophomore Tyrese Proctor missed a game for the first time in his career, as he’s still dealing with the injury to his left ankle suffered against Georgia Tech.

Duke’s guards still combined for 61 points — 21 of those coming from freshman Jared McCain, his season high. Jeremy Roach scored 18 on 5-for-9 shooting and Jaylen Blakes, with Scheyer asserting that offense is a bonus and defense and energy are his calling cards, had 15 points on 5-for-5 shooting.

“It’s a sigh of relief. Get the Duke fans off of me a little bit,” McCain said with a laugh, as he had 11 points on a combined 4-for-17 shooting in Duke’s pair of road losses.

“I feel bad for any player in the country, but especially our guys, where it’s like they’re not allowed to fail,” Scheyer said, in relation to McCain. “Or they’re not allowed to have an off game. It’s not like they’re trying to have an off game. They’re learning what it takes.”

Mark Mitchell added 12 points, eight of those coming at the free-throw line. He had five rebounds, drew six fouls and had two assists and two steals. Filipowski was 2-for-10 and only scored five points, but had 13 rebounds and a team-best four assists.

Duke went on a 13-2 run to get a 27-13 lead by the under-8 media break of the first half, and followed shortly after with another 13-2 run that made it 40-17 with 4½ minutes before halftime.

Things got wobbly in the first few minutes of the second half, which was a carryover from the last 1½ minutes of the first half.

Duke’s halftime lead was 45-27 after Charlotte scored seven straight points. The Blue Devils pushed the lead back above 20, at 55-33, and then the 49ers scored 11 straight points.

The lead hovered around 13-16 points for about five minutes before Duke stretched the lead back to 20 and cruised to the 24-point win.

“We weren’t capitalizing on either side, really, and we got away from it a little bit,” Filipowski said. “But we didn’t let their run get larger or anything and we got back to what we were doing.”

TIP-INS: The game was stopped for about eight minutes in the first half, with Duke leading 36-17, when a student appeared to suffer a medical emergency. … Along with Proctor, sophomore center Christian Reeves was also out with an ankle injury. Proctor was on crutches but didn’t have a walking boot on; Reeves had neither crutches or a walking boot. … Duke’s new football coach Manny Diaz was introduced during the first media timeout of the game, made a free throw for charity at halftime, and joined the Crazies with his son, Manny Diaz, during the last media timeout of the game.