Notre Dame knocks Duke basketball out of ACC tournament

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Despite a furious second-half comeback effort, the Blue Devils' luck ran out against the Fighting Irish.

No. 2 Duke fell 74-64 to No. 11 Notre Dame in the ACC tournament semifinals, as freshman Jahlil Okafor's 28-point effort would go unrewarded. The Blue Devils could not hold back the Fighting Irish despite a furious comeback led by Justise Winslow's 11 second-half points. Bonzie Colson paced Notre Dame with 17 points.

The Fighting Irish built a 15-point halftime lead and Steve Vasturia scored seven points after the break to keep the Blue Devils at bay for the entirety of the second half. Vasturia and teammate Pat Connaughton came up with the answers consistently as Duke threatened to cut into the lead.

"By the time we got the energy, got the intensity, it was too late," Winslow said. "We had our chances down the stretch, but we've got to put together a better 40 minutes as a whole if we want to win these types of games."

As big as the Fighting Irish guards were in the second half, it was their post presence and sheer aggressiveness that created separation in the opening 20 minutes. .

The Fighting Irish defensive effort in the first half was one of the more impressive of the tournament, as Duke had been held to less than 30 points in a half just two times this season entering the game. After the Blue Devils (29-4) went for 44 points in the paint against N.C. State, Notre Dame (28-5) decided to take a page out of Duke's playbook, as the Fighting Irish went for 30 points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes.

Colson and point guard Demetrius Jackson led the way, as the two combined for 25 points in the first half. Colson was a zone buster for Notre Dame, as the 6-foot-5 forward led his squad with 13 first-half points, the majority coming off jumpers from the middle of the paint in the heart of the Duke zone.

"[The problem] wasn't missing shots tonight, it was our defense and our intensity," Winslow said. "We're not worried about the offense. We know that's going to be there. It's just all about the defense."

Okafor was the lone silver lining for the Blue Devils in the first half.

One day removed from scoring just 10 points in 19 minutes of play against N.C. State, the Chicago big man exploded in the first half. Okafor led the team with 15 points, taking advantage of a favorable matchup against Colson and Zach Auguste backing down his defender in single coverage to contribute 13 of Duke's 18 points in the paint before intermission.

"Me and [head coach Mike Krzyzewski] talked before the game and he told me I wasn't playing as well as I needed to," Okafor said. "So just trying to play better for my teammates. The past couple of weeks they've been really playing well and that's why we've been winning."

Even Okafor's big half was not enough to salvage the half, though. By the time the first 20 minutes had passed, the Blue Devils trailed 41-26 and seemed to have no answers.

"We came out just not aggressive, not hungry," freshman point guard Tyus Jones said. "And then they came out and attacked us first. That was the difference in the game. The way we played in the second half was a total 180 of the first half. We can't come out and play like that and expect to win games."

But in the second half, the Blue Devils—along with a loud backing from their fans in Greensboro—came alive.

After trailing by at least 12 in the early part of the half, Winslow—who had been held scoreless through the first 26 minutes—slashed past his defender and flushed down a two-handed dunk and cut the lead to 10 on the ensuing free throw. Okafor would cut the lead to single digits on the following possession, forcing Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey to call a timeout.

Coming out of the break, Brey had the Fighting Irish switch to a 2-3 zone, as the Blue Devils were just 1-for-9 from beyond the arc up to that point in the contest. The move took away Okafor's easy path to the basket through Auguste and was an effort to force Duke to connect from downtown.

But Winslow would continue his hot streak, converting a jumper, flushing down a dunk off a rebound and later taking the ball the length of the court for a right-handed lay-in to cut the lead to 66-59 with 4:42 remaining in the contest.

"I just tried to win the game," Winslow said. "If that means I'm not scoring much or scoring later, it doesn't matter to me. The more important thing is just winning."

Twenty-one seconds later, it was Matt Jones' turn to make an impact. Guarding Grant, Jones went to fight around a screen from Auguste, but the Fighting Irish big man was not set and picked up his fifth foul, putting him on the bench with 4:21 remaining. This forced the under-sized Colson to guard Okafor for the remainder of the game. And the Blue Devils would take advantage.

After an easy layup from Okfaor, all Fighting Irish eyes were on the paint. With extra help coming to the lane, the ball was swung around to Tyus Jones, who stood three feet back from the arc, and the freshman drained a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four.

But just as the magic seemed to be in the Blue Devils' favor, Connaughton nailed a fade-away jump shot with 1:11 remaining and the shot clock expiring to put the Fighting Irish back up by six. Duke's desperate 3-pointers in the closing minute would all miss the mark to send the squad back to Durham both disappointed and ready for the coming NCAA tournament.

"Hopefully we're still at a point in time where we can learn from this," Krzyzewski said. "Next game we play, there is no learning. You've got to do it."

The Blue Devils will now await their seeding for the Big Dance, with the announcement coming on Selection Sunday at 6 p.m.