PHILADELPHIA — The Owls entered the Wells Fargo Center quietly—through the Philadelphia subway system. They hardly left the court in silence, however, surrounded by hordes of their fans who stormed the floor to celebrate with them.
In front of the Wells Fargo Center’s third-largest crowd for a collegiate basketball game, Temple upset Duke 78-73, physically bullying the No. 5 Blue Devils, who were outworked for the majority of the game. The subway ride symbolized to Owl head coach Fran Dunphy the working class attitude he expects his players to bring to the floor, an homage to when Temple students would regularly have to ride the subway between classes and part-time jobs.
That mentality was immediately apparent in the Owl players, who were expected to be easily pushed around by Duke’s size in the paint. Starting Blue Devil forwards Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly stand 6-foot-10 and 6-foot-11 respectively, while Temple trotted out 6-foot-9 Anthony Lee and 6-foot-6 Rahir Hollis-Jefferson. Even though Temple struggled to settle in, with five turnovers in the game’s first four minutes, it quickly began to dominate the boards, grabbing 18 in the first half to Duke’s 10.
“That can’t happen against an undersized team. It can’t happen against anybody.” Mason Plumlee said. “That’s mainly on me and the other bigs.”
The Blue Devils never regained the lead after the 10:43 mark in the first half, when Hollis-Jefferson nailed a jump shot in a display of his offensive versatility. The lone bright spot for Duke in that period was Miles Plumlee, who notched 12 points to keep the Blue Devils within two at the break, down 35-33.
In a jarring move, head coach Mike Krzyzewski started Michael Gbinije, Josh Hairston, Miles Plumlee, Tyler Thornton and Austin Rivers to begin the second half. Among those players, only Thornton and Rivers started the game. The Owls hit two quick jump shots out of the break, however, extending their lead to six and making the crowd a major factor in the game.
“At halftime, we’re only down two and we came out as if we’re down 30,” Rivers said. “Our heads were down for no reason. It was a two-point game, a one-possession game. We came out and we were slow, and they just kept extending the lead.”
With 9:37 left in the second half, the Owls had brought their lead to double-digits, up 55-45. But, Mason Plumlee then began to assert himself on the offensive end, with two consecutive baskets that helped bring Duke within four.
At the 5:05 mark they had whittled it down to three, but Temple guard Khalif Wyatt responded with 3-pointers on the following two possessions to expand the lead and take the wind out of the Blue Devil sails.
“We didn’t fight and they kept throwing punches at us and kept making shots,” Rivers said. “They had confidence. They had guys that were making shots with confidence because we let them have confidence. Once you let a team think they can play with you, then it’s going to be tough to win.”
Duke was unable to contain Wyatt in the second half, who scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in that period on 5-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Although the Blue Devils were outworked for rebounds in the game—by a final margin of 32 to 29—it may have been those 3-pointers that proved to be the difference.
Entering last night’s matchup, the Owls were holding opponents to a 25.6 shooting percentage from beyond the arc, the fourth-best defensive rate in the nation. Duke, which entered the contest averaging 8.4 treys per game, were held to just six. The Owls made only five 3-pointers, but did so on an efficient 5-of-10 shooting.
“Their perimeter really controls the tempo of the game with such a veteran perimeter,” Krzyzewski said. “We obviously didn’t play very well, but that doesn’t take away from how well they played.”
The Plumlee brothers were the only players to shine at any point, with Mason contributing 16 points and 13 rebounds and Miles putting home a team-high 17 points.
This was the Blue Devils’ final out-of-conference test this season, now kicking off ACC play on Saturday at Georgia Tech. The game will be Duke’s third road test of the season, and third chance to earn its first road victory after falling in the two previous ones to Temple and Ohio State earlier in the season.
“Both [road] games we came out flat and not ready to play,” Mason Plumlee said. “You can’t come out slow on the road.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.