Duke loses at Wake Forest, with court storming taking over conversation

WINSTON-SALEM – Everything mattered for 40 minutes, a Tobacco Road game between teams atop the ACC standings, living up to the hype, going blow for blow and featuring seven ties and 11 lead changes in the second half.

And then it all became secondary.

Duke star center Kyle Filipowski was injured after Wake Forest’s 83-79 win over the Blue Devils on Saturday at Joel Coliseum.

We’re right back into a familiar discussion, of whether students should be allowed to run onto playing surfaces at risk of injury to visiting teams — with the focal point of Duke’s team meeting with reporters after the game with ice wrapped around his right knee.

“Just like any other upset game where the fans rush the court, all hell goes crazy and I’m just trying to make my way off the court and you’ve got these crazy college students just doing whatever they want,” Filipowski said.

“Gotta be a little more protective when things like that happen.”

Coach Jon Scheyer gave an impassioned 1-minute, 44-second opening statement in which he credited Wake Forest in some form or fashion four separate times. The Deacons were seen as being on the other side of the NCAA tournament bubble entering Saturday, something Scheyer strongly disagreed with.

And yet, it’s everything that wasn’t about the game between two of the ACC’s best that resonates past today.

“I’m more concerned about the wellbeing of our guys. Flip sprains his ankle, when are we going to ban court storming? When are we going to ban that?” Scheyer said, his voice sharpening and him mixing up which lower body part of Filipowski’s was injured.

“Like, how many times does a player have to get into something where they get punched or they get pushed or they get taunted right in their face? It’s a dangerous thing.”

Duke (21-6, 12-4 ACC) has lost on the road four times this season and three of the four have resulted in court stormings; the one that didn’t was at North Carolina.

As you can see from the overhead view, Filipowski bangs knees with a student. He’s pushed from behind, and the 7-footer is pinballed a few times before a student manager and walk-on 7-footer Stanley Borden could get to him.

“I felt a bunch of hits on my body, this one was the worst of them,” Filipowski said of his knee. “It’s just really ridiculous of how that situation was handled.”

There was a timeout with 1.8 seconds left and Wake Forest (18-9, 10-6) leading by what the final score wound up being. Duke’s desperation heave was picked off, with fans rushing the court before time expired.

Other photos and video showed one fan getting into the face of Duke’s Mark Mitchell, and another standing in the way of Jared McCain as he tried to leave the court.

“That’s the environment in every game we play because everyone wants to see us lose so bad,” Filipowski said. “Just, playing for Duke, that’s even more of a challenge in every road game. …

“Everyone knew it was coming. They were up four with 2 seconds left, everyone was just waiting for the moment and they didn’t do anything to stop it. That’s just ridiculous.”

While the ending overshadowed a lot, it was a ridiculous game for all of the right reasons.

The momentum swings and high-level shot-making of the second half made this feel like an NCAA tournament game. Duke couldn’t slow down Hunter Sallis, who scored 29 points on 11-for-13 shooting; nor could the Blue Devils slow down Wake Forest in the second half, with the Deacons making all five 3s and 17 of 23 shots.

Contributions for Duke were balanced, with Filipowski’s 17-point, eight-rebound, five-assist performance leading the way. Jeremy Roach scored 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, McCain had 15 points, and Tyrese Proctor scored 14 points off of the bench.

There was never a run of more than six straight points scored by either team in the second half. That 6-point spurt was the decisive one, and were Wake’s last two 3s of the game — one by Andrew Carr that represented the final lead change, and then a corner 3 by Cameron Hildreth with 4:18 left that put Duke in chase mode for the rest of the game.

The Blue Devils had a chance in the closing seconds, after Filipowski made a 3 and Duke got a stop. Down by two with time sliding off the clock, Proctor passed the ball between Filipowski and Mitchell, with the ball winding up out of bounds.

Duke didn’t have a field goal for the last three minutes of the first half, but stayed afloat with a slim lead thanks to free throws by Filipowski and Mitchell. The lead was 38-36 at halftime, the first 20 minutes never seeing a lead of more than six points (Duke on a couple of occasions).

Really, this was the evenly matched game you’d expect for teams that met 12 days ago and never had more than nine points of separation. The Blue Devils went wire-to-wire in that one; so when Wake Forest scored early, it was the first time this season the Deacons led Duke.

TIP-INS: On top of Filipowski’s status, the Blue Devils lost freshman guard Caleb Foster to an injury in the second half, Scheyer said. He has what’s believed to be an ankle injury. … This was Duke’s first loss of the season, in 11 games, with the starting lineup it had — Foster, Roach, McCain, Mitchell, Filipowski.