Sportswrap: Men's basketball upsets Gonzaga, Cutcliffe and football program part ways

Duke men's basketball had a landmark win against No. 1 Gonzaga Friday night.
Duke men's basketball had a landmark win against No. 1 Gonzaga Friday night.

Sportswrap is your one-stop shop for everything Duke athletics,  where we’ll recap how each of Duke’s sports currently in competition  performed over the last week and give a brief look ahead. Here’s our  recap for the week of Nov. 22-28.

Men’s basketball

A hard-fought win Monday against The Citadel had the Blue Devils primed for a gritty bout with No. 1 Gonzaga Friday in Las Vegas. The battle of heavyweights was everything it was hyped to be and more, as a monster 20-point first half from Paolo Banchero and enormous contributions from Wendell Moore Jr., and Mark Williams took down the beast 84-81 to remain undefeated. Duke (7-0)  heads to Columbus, Ohio for a true road test against Ohio State Tuesday. -Micah Hurewitz 

Football 

After 14 years on the Duke football sideline, longtime head coach David Cutcliffe’s time with the team came to an end Sunday afternoon after he and the athletic department agreed to part ways. Cutcliffe’s departure comes just one day after the Blue Devils ended their season with a 47-10 loss at home to Miami, finishing the season 3-9 and winless in ACC play after their eighth-straight loss. -Jonathan Levitan

Women’s basketball 

Duke beat Troy 91-75, and despite shooting 45.9% overall and 40.6% from three, went 10-of-25 from the line with 19 turnovers. Shayeann Day-Wilson had scored a career-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting, five rebounds, four assists and six turnovers; Celeste Taylor notched 24 points on 8-17 shooting, 11 rebounds, six assists, and six steals against four turnovers—the first 26/11/6/6 performance in almost three years. Duke (6-0) has a huge matchup against No. 8 Iowa. -Adler

Women’s soccer 

It’s over. Its first win over Stanford since 1996, against North Carolina since 2015, versus Florida State since 2017, most all-conference honors and first NCAA one-seed since 2017. And Duke’s season is over. Santa Clara—unseeded, but No. 12 in the poll—quickly scored twice in the mid-first half. The Blue Devils created chances throughout the second, but only converted one in a 2-1 loss, the first season-ender at Koskinen since 1997. A landmark freshman class joins for 2022, but Duke loses three starting grad students and likely some seniors, possibly including three of TopDrawerSoccer’s national top-70. -Em Adler

Men’s soccer

Duke ended its season in heartbreaking fashion in the third round of the NCAA tournament Saturday against Saint Louis. After coming back to tie up the score twice with goals from Thorleifur Ulfarsson, Nick Pariano and Jai Bean, an own goal gave the Billikens a 4-3 lead and the Blue Devils couldn’t get a third equalizer. Despite the loss, Duke has an ACC Championship appearance, an ACC regular season championship and three major ACC awards to look back on. -Sasha Richie

Volleyball

Duke fought hard Friday against North Carolina but ultimately fell to the Tar Heels in five sets (20-25, 6-24, 22-25, 25-21, 9-15). That wraps up Duke’s season, where it finished 16-13 overall and 7-11 in the ACC. Despite the outcome, the Blue Devils had some highs in Cameron. Gracie Johnson led Duke offensively with 23 kills, a career-high for the junior outside hitter. Ade Owokoniran celebrated her senior night with 14 kills, while senior libero Mackenzie Cole picked up 20 digs, marking her 23rd game in her college career with 20 or more digs. -Leah Boyd

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