Tyrese Proctor lifts Duke

DURHAM – This is the Tyrese Proctor who was promised.

A game after scoring his career high, Duke’s sophomore guard made two free throws with one second left to give the Blue Devils a 72-71 win over Clemson at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday.

“I wasn’t really stressed, to be honest,” Proctor said of himself in that moment. “I was just talking to myself and really calm and knew I was going to make both of them.”

After No. 12 Duke (15-4, 6-2 ACC) got 24 points from Proctor on Tuesday night, he scored 18 against Clemson, including the two that mattered most. Those came because of a full-court play in which Proctor came up the right side, crossed into the middle and was fouled by Josh Beadle while trying to get up a shot from the elbow.

“With 7 seconds, we have a play that we go to at that time,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “I guess we’ll have to get a new play now. But for Tyrese, you just want to attack the basket.”

Before heading to the free-throw line, Proctor got a towel from Duke’s bench and dried his hands. He high-5’d teammates with the back of his hand.

Precautions taken; victory delivered.

“I didn’t want to get my hands all sweaty and stuff,” Proctor said.

“I had to just make sure” with the towel, he added.

Duke’s sophomore guard who oozes NBA potential has played eight games since returning from an ankle injury, but it’s the last four in which he’s scored in double figures. It’s the last two in which he’s played at the level he was expected to entering the season.

The game ended with Clemson (13-6, 3-5) throwing an 80-foot pass on which Mark Mitchell and PJ Hall collided, with the ball winding up in Jared McCain’s hands as time expired.

That play, in front of Clemson’s bench and combined with the call that sent Proctor to the free-throw line, sent the Tigers into a tizzy after the final buzzer.

Coach Brad Brownell was still simmering afterward.

“It’s hard to win here. I think a lot of people in the room, on the court, get caught up in the emotion of the game,” Brownell said. “Give the Duke kids credit for being aggressive and taking it to the basket, but that’s really poor.

“There was a lot of emotion from our bench because we’re a passionate bunch that fought their tails off and feel like the game was maybe taken from us, a little bit. It shouldn’t be decided like that.”

Scheyer was, as you’d expect, defensive when Brownell’s comments were mentioned to him.

“I can go through the whole game and talk about the different plays of them pushing us in the back,” Scheyer said. “I can go down the whole game.

“All I know is Tyrese Proctor made a heck of a play at the end to drive it to the basket and he gets fouled shooting two free throws. And he should be celebrated for that.”

McCain scored a game-high 21 points, the microwavable freshman scoring nine straight points at a critical juncture of the second half.

It was his defense that turned this from a second straight home loss to Duke’s 10th win in the last 11 games.

Clemson led 69-65 when Kyle Filipowski missed two free throws with 2:06 left. McCain stole the ball in the backcourt, leading to an extra chance for Filipowski, who missed in the low post.

A few seconds later, it was McCain with another steal — this time intercepting a pass to the wing and racing down the court for a layup to make it a two-point deficit.

“I worked on that in practice, we drilled it in the scout,” McCain said of that play. “I knew I could shoot it off the screen sometimes, so I was able to get my hand in the passing lane with my super long wingspan and run as fast as I can, probably the fastest I’ve run in my life, and go finish the layup.”

The Blue Devils forced turnovers on each of Clemson’s next two possessions, too. Both came with the Tigers trying to enter the ball to the post; both passes were denied, thanks to Mitchell’s defense and Duke corralling loose balls.

“I was just thinking, ‘Just fight,’” Mitchell said. “I knew I had PJ Hall in the post, I was just trying to do anything I could to win and that’s what it took.”

Filipowski converted a three-point play — one of his highlights in a lowlight of a game, as he had nine points, four rebounds, was 2-for-8 from the field and 5-for-11 at the free-throw line — to give Duke a 70-69 lead with 15 seconds left.

Hall was fouled on the ensuing possession by Filipowski, which was his fifth foul, and he provided the second of three lead changes in the final 20 seconds of this game.

That finishing flourish made sweet what was a mostly bitter second half.

After holding Clemson to 0.79 points per possession in the first half, the Tigers were scoring at 1.48 points per possession in the first 18 minutes of the second half. Duke stayed afloat and traded baskets through most of the second half — neither team scored more than four consecutive points in the second half until McCain’s layup and Filipowski’s three-point play in the final 90 seconds.

Not to be lost in the shuffle of the back-and-forth second half, Duke got Jeremy Roach back after he exited Tuesday night’s game with an ankle injury. He struggled, making 1 of 8 shots, though he did make two free throws with 4:31 left. Roach checked in at the first media timeout, which was 15:04 left in the first half.

The first half basically played out in three parts; one of them positive for Duke, but it was sustained long enough for the Blue Devils to take a 32-26 lead to halftime.

Clemson led 16-12 after about eight minutes. Mitchell had nine of Duke’s 12 points, while Clemson got 3s from Chase Hunter, RJ Godfrey and Hall.

Duke controlled the next 10 minutes.

Proctor caught fire, drilling three 3s in the span of 3:22. The variety was impressive — the first in transition, the second within the flow of the offense, the third a step-back (and maybe a heat check). McCain hit a 3 before Proctor’s burst and Caleb Foster hit one on the other side of it.

Defensively, Clemson made two shots, missed 13, and turned the ball over five times in those 10 minutes. It all started with the Tigers’ Jack Clark, an N.C. State transfer, getting a technical foul for shoving the ball into Sean Stewart’s chest after a fast-break layup.

TIP-INS: Duke had seven assists on 11 field goals in the first half; it had one assist on 10 in the second half, and that was about a 30-footer from Proctor as the shot clock was running down. … The Blue Devils made 21 of 33 free throws, that 63.6% clip registering as the third-worst of the season (the others being a win over Southern Indiana and the loss at Georgia Tech). … Clemson held a 42-33 rebounding advantage. It’s the fifth time in the last seven games Duke has been outrebounded, and the minus-9 is Duke’s worst since Arizona was plus-12 against the Blue Devils in the second game of the year. … Proctor’s 42 points are the most he’s had in consecutive games at Duke (52 career games). The previous high was 35. It’s also the first time in his career that he’s made four 3s in back-to-back games (4-for-10 at Louisville; 4-for-6 against Clemson). … Mitchell scored 13 points, 10 of those coming in the first 14 minutes. Duke is now 26-2 when he scores at least 10 points. … Duke had four offensive rebounds. The Blue Devils didn’t have a second-chance point for the first time this season.