At first, it seemed like Duke was set to roll to another blowout win Saturday, building a first-half lead that grew as big as 25 thanks to lights out shooting and unselfish ball movement.
But yet again, the Blue Devils could not escape the injury bug, as graduate student Amile Jefferson exited late in the first half with a foot injury that kept him off the floor the rest of the afternoon.
And slowly, as their defensive leader and most seasoned player remained in the locker room and then watched from the bench, Duke began to see its advantage slip away as its freshmen were thrust into more prominent roles in a suddenly tight ACC game.
Boston College rattled off a 14-2 run in five minutes as the Blue Devils missed 10 straight shots from the field. A game that seemed destined to be a laugher had become uncomfortably close, and Duke’s lead stood at just eight points with 4:51 left to play.
“We stopped defending in the second half. We got into a game of, 'Who’s going to outscore each other?'" Blue Devil junior Grayson Allen said. “They were playing free and they got hot and were shooting the ball really well, scoring the ball really well. That allowed them to come back as we got cold.”
As Eagle guards Ky Bowman and Jerome Robinson brought their team back in the second half by getting to the basket with ease, it was evident that the Blue Devils sorely missed Jefferson’s interior presence and communication.
When Bowman and Robinson turned the corner to attack the basket, Duke's help-side defense was a step slow, leading to several uncharacteristically open layups.
"He’s a leader and he’s very vocal. Learning to talk is something that you adjust to and you learn to do as you play more games with us," Allen said. "With Amile out of the game, we’re losing a very experienced guy and we’re replacing him with a guy who’s very good, but young. With Harry [Giles] being the only big in the game, or Jayson [Tatum] moving to the four, it’s just learning to talk."
With the Blue Devils up 10 at the under-four media timeout, interim head coach Jeff Capel encouraged his team to settle down in its first game this year without head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Duke then broke the huddle in a small-ball lineup featuring swingman Tatum at the five after Giles fouled out with 3:41 remaining.
Still, there was one more Blue Devil who had advice to give to the five players on the court—and that was Jefferson, who hobbled out on to the floor to offer some final words of encouragement before play resumed.
“It hurt us offensively, defensively, it hurt us in the huddle.... It hurt us everywhere,” Capel said. “He’s a really, really important part of what we do and so it definitely really did hurt us.”
With sophomore Luke Kennard a bit out of rhythm offensively—his nine-point, 2-of-6 performance was the first time all season he failed to score in double-digits—Duke was missing the steady play of two veterans who had mostly carried the team during nonconference play.
Allen was steady and piled up a career-high 11 assists, but with the junior embracing a facilitating role, the Blue Devils had to look elsewhere for key buckets to bury Boston College.
Tatum proved he was more than up to the task, matching a career high with 22 points on just nine field goal attempts. The St. Louis native drilled four straight free throws in the final minute to help ice the victory, just moments after draining a dagger 3-pointer that pushed the Duke lead back to 10.
“Grayson dished it to Matt [Jones], and Matt made the extra pass. We always talk about being ready to shoot our bullets, and that’s what I did. I’m glad it went in,” Tatum said. “We made that 3-[pointer] and then kept getting stops, feeding off the crowd’s energy.”
Tatum has had little trouble putting up points since his debut against Maine Dec. 3, but Saturday’s game marked the first time in ACC play he has had to come up with clutch baskets under the pressure of a close contest.
Three of his fellow rookies—Giles, center Marques Bolden and guard Frank Jackson—each stepped to the line late in the second half and sunk free throws that kept a charging Eagle squad at bay, part of a 13-of-16 second-half performance from the line for the Blue Devils.
With two grueling road games next on the slate against No. 12 Florida State and No. 9 Louisville, Duke will likely find itself in more close contests than blowouts. Although it did not appear they would get practice with that Saturday, the late-game experience the young Blue Devils earned against Boston College could pay dividends down the road.
“That was big for us, it was very big for us. [Tatum] wanted to be in that position,” Capel said. “Those are situations that we can’t simulate in practice and so again we got some great experience now. We would’ve liked to have not been in that position, but we were and we were because Boston College fought and they played hard.”
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