Duke grows up in comeback win

DURHAM – There was no reason to think it was coming.

Duke’s flaws of recent games were showing in the worst ways. Twelve first-half turnovers. A few spurts of lackluster defense. Stifled by an older, veteran team. Lacking a go-to scorer.

It translated to an 11-point halftime deficit.

Then came the moment — the half, really — in which this team grew up.

The Blue Devils scored 15 straight points in a critical time of the second half and beat visiting Pittsburgh 77-69 on Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“I think that’s been — I don’t want to say an Achilles heel — but we’re a young team,” graduate transfer Ryan Young said. “The first-half team is the team that we need to get away from. The second-half team is the one we need to be, and it’s who we can be.

“If we want to be really good and get to our goals, we’ve got to be able to do that for 40 minutes.”

Kyle Filipowski led Duke (13-4, 4-2 ACC) with 28 points and 15 rebounds; he had 16 and 11 in the second half. It was a tour de force from Duke’s freshman forward, who drew eight fouls and was 11 of 13 at the free-throw line.

“They dominated the glass, and I thought that was the difference in the game,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said. “Obviously, Filipowski is a really good player and he had a monster night tonight.”

No. 24 Duke held Pitt (11-6, 4-2) scoreless for 6:45 in the second half, turning an eight-point deficit into a seven-point lead. The field goal drought for the Panthers stretch past eight minutes, with Nelly Cummings hitting a 3-pointer with 5:55 left to draw Pitt within 64-58.

Jacob Grandison hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, late in the shot clock, to put Duke back ahead by nine.

That was one of several times it felt like the roof was going to come off this building in the second half.

“I thought it was just a vintage Cameron night,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “I’m talking to the team in the huddle and it was the first time in Cameron where the team couldn’t hear me. There’s been many moments with Coach K and that’s happening, and somebody’s 2 feet away, you can’t hear.

“We got to that level tonight.”

Most of those times came during the 15-0 run that gave Duke the lead it never relinquished in the second half. Pitt never came closer than four points in the closing minutes.

Tyrese Proctor had a three-point play on a fast break, taking a feed from Dariq Whitehead, to get Duke within two of Pitt’s lead, part of his stellar 14-point, five-assist, zero-turnover performance. Duke was without point guard Jeremy Roach for the second straight game — he’s unlikely to play Saturday at Clemson, too — so Proctor’s emergence can’t be understated.

The game-tying bucket in Duke’s run came from a most-unlikely source — though it was fitting because of his defense in the second half.

Freshman center Dereck Lively II took a post feed on the right block, drop-stepped into a right-handed hook and smoothly banked it off the glass.

The surprise comes because he’s a player who, of his first 23 career field goals, 20 have been dunks. There was little surprise to the teammates who have seen the work he’s put in through a difficult first half of his season, though.

“He’s been putting in a lot of time with that,” Whitehead, Lively’s roommate, said. “He’s been coming in in the mornings, coming back with me at night, putting a lot of time in. … It’s slowly starting to come, and I feel like he’ll be fine.”

For Lively, it’s a step toward helping Duke win, along with his work paying off.

“Whichever way the game goes, I’m just making sure I do the right thing so I can have an impact, no matter if it’s defense or offense,” Lively said. “I’ve been working on that move, been working out of the post, just to do what I can.”

Lively had six points and only played 12 minutes — he fouled out with three minutes left — but was plus-17.

Duke switched its ball-screen defense in the second half, using Lively in switches against Pitt’s veteran guards. He was able to stay with them, which is part of why Pitt went from shooting 56.7% in the first half (17-for-30) to 28.6% in the second half (8-for-28).

Scheyer wasn’t quite ready to commit to calling this the night in which Duke grew up; he’ll wait to see how Duke plays at Clemson to know that for sure.

“I think we’ll know that for sure with how we come out on Saturday,” he said. “I can tell you this much, I think we learned something. I think we learned what it takes to beat a really good team at this point of the year.

“We’re down double digits. Knowing we can fight our way back … I know it sounds really simple but I think for us, it is, playing really hard on defense and then just sharing it on offense, and trusting that it’ll come to you.”

The 11-point halftime deficit is the largest Duke has overcome since a Nov. 2017 game against Texas (was 12 points).

Pitt ripped open a 26-14 lead with a 13-2 run after the first few minutes were back-and-forth. At one point during that stretch, Duke committed five turnovers across 2:15.

Duke brought Pitt’s lead back to single digits with 3s — one each from Grandison, Whitehead and Filipowski. That was Filipowski’s first 3-pointer since the win over Iowa on Dec. 6.

The hot shooting didn’t last.

Duke had two field goals in the last 6½ minutes of the first half — a Proctor-to-Lively lob and a Lively tip-in. The Blue Devils committed another four turnovers, giving them 12 in the first half. They had 12 or fewer turnovers in seven of the first 11 games; they entered this game averaging 15.4 turnovers in the last five games.

Pitt ended the first half on a 9-0 run, getting a few mid-range jumpers and a 3-pointer by Greg Elliott.

“There were too many one-pass possessions in the first half, too many times we just gave them the ball,” Scheyer said.

The differences, on a night full of them between the first and second halves, added up to what feels like an important win for a young Duke team.

TIP-INS: Duke outrebounded Pitt 51-28, and that plus-23 margin is Duke’s best of the season against a power-conference team and second-best overall. The Blue Devils’ 24 offensive rebounds were a season high. … Filipowski’s 20-point game was only Duke’s fourth 20-point performance of the season, joining Roach (twice) and Young. … Duke outscored Pitt in second-chance points (19-8) and fast-break points (21-8). … There were only two lead changes in the game; when Pitt took an early lead at 6-5, and when Duke regained the lead in the second half.