All the signs pointed to the Blue Devils notching a double-digit win in their first outing in Portland. The problem is nobody told the Oregon State Beavers that they were supposed to roll over. Instead the Beavers capitalized on Duke’s worst shooting performance in a quarter century. The Blue Devils shot a paltry 26.7 % from the field but managed to eke out a 3-point win.
Oregon State kept the Blue Devils off balance with a mixture of zone and man that confounded the Blue Devil offense – sometimes switching mid-possession. Duke was unable to shoot over the zone and unable to get through the zone with passing or driving. The Blue Devils seemed content to pass the ball around the perimeter, sometimes late into the shot clock, and shoot 3’s. Unfortunately for Jon Scheyer crew they shot 17%.
The Beavers, down just 2 at the half, quickly tied the game in the early minutes of the second half off of a Jeremy Roach turnover and a fast break layup by Jordan Pope. They would take the lead 30 seconds later on free throws from a loose ball foul on Dereck Lively. The Beavers lead for over 9 minutes of the second half until Kyle Filipowski nailed a 3 pointer at the 8:21 mark to draw the devils even. After a defensive stand and with the game tied the Blue Devils finally wrestled the lead away at the 7:32 mark of the second half on a Jeremy Roach mid-range jumper. In all it was a 13-7 run to reclaim the lead for the Blue Devils.
The positives for the Blue Devils they were able hold the Beavers to under 40% shooting for the game and got stops when they needed to including on a mismatch in the waning moments of the game that saw freshmen 7 footer Kyle Filipowski having to defend point guard Jordan Pope in space. Filipowski forced the point guard into a turnover and collected the steal in what might have been the play of the game for the Blue Devils at the 4 minute mark and Duke only hanging on by a 1 point. Filipowski 30 second later grabbed an offensive rebound, getting fouled – he knocked down 2 free throws.
The good news for the Blue Devils, despite their abysmal shooting, defensively they held up. Other good signs were a couple of flashes from freshman Dariq Whitehead who is still working his way into game shape for Duke. The freshman hit on two 3-pointers in the first half scoring 7 points in 17 minutes for the Blue Devils.
The man of he match for the Blue Devils, as it has been for most of this early season, was Kyle Filipowski. The freshman was the most aggressive and the most effective of the Blue Devils, notching another double-double and leading the Blue Devils in scoring with 19 to go along with his 14 rebounds. Ryan Young also college his first double-double as a Blue Devil with 11 points and 15 rebounds to lead the team. The Blue Devils continued their streak of out-rebounding their opponents – this time a 45-29 advantage which included 22 offensive rebounds that the Blue Devils turned into 18 second change points. The Blue Devils were unable to get their running game going only scoring 3 fast breaks points in the game.
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DUKE HEAD COACH JON SCHEYER
Opening Statement:
“Wow. Well, obviously that was a heck of a college basketball game. Give Oregon State a ton of credit for how they came out and played. Their switching defenses really hurt us; I thought it stood us up. It made us really hesitant on offense, I thought that was pretty obvious. But the plays down the stretch, we’ve got Ryan Young, Kyle Filipowski, Jacob Grandison hitting two free throws, some big-time winning plays. You have to find a way to gut it out, and proud of figuring out a way to win. That’s what our program has been about, we need to continue to figure out how to do that and the thing about this tournament, you have to turn the page very quickly now and get ready for whoever we play tomorrow. But proud of the resolve to get that win and of course we have a lot of things we need to improve and get better at.”
On Kyle Filipowski’s maturity:
“He’s a big-time competitor. I thought he hasn’t gotten off to the best starts but he’s always, when the game is on the line, he’s not afraid. He hit some big-time shots, the three of course was huge for us to tie it, but those offensive rebounds he had were big-time. Five offensive rebounds, 14 total, him and Ryan, just their presence by the basket, really caused Oregon State to pick up and get in a lot of foul trouble. He’s a competitor though, he’s a gamer, I’m not surprised by what he did. The thing I love the most is his defense. Really down the stretch, he guarded, switched on the smaller guards, moved his feet, played without fouling. That, to me, was a huge period of growth for him.”
On the team’s depth:
“For us, we’ve talked a lot about, with our team, we feel that depth is a huge strength of ours. That may mean we close out games differently than we start. Or depending on how the game goes, somebody has it really going. Ryan (Young) just got in the game there, it’s hard to take him out. I mean, he was getting almost every offensive rebound, on defense playing pick and roll coverage great, defending and giving us that physical presence we needed. And then Jake (Grandison), they’ve been in those moments, so they weren’t afraid. Now Jake necessarily didn’t score any field goals, but you feel like, when he’s at the line, end of the game, he’s going to knock in those two free throws. And he knows what to do. So, proud of those guys. That can change tomorrow. It wasn’t like it was a conscience decision where you’re not playing somebody or you’re going with the five guys that have it going on the court.”
On what he saw from Oregon State:
“Well yeah I’ve a lot of respect for Coach Tinkle. He’s a great coach, he’s done great thing with that program. I knew he’d have them ready to play. I thought they were really prepared and came out very confidently. So credit them. And also with us, we have to come out with that same edge. We didn’t have that same edge that Oregon State had today. And that’s my responsibility. And we have to do better with that. But credit them, you know they have, Jordan Pope is a really good player. He’s going to be a really good guard in the Pac-12, and as a freshman to do what he did, I thought our guards made things pretty difficult for him and he still found gaps and space to get a shot off. And (Dexter) Akanno and (Glenn) Taylor Jr., and the job we did on Taylor to only get two free throws when he had 15 last game and he’s been living at the free throw line. They’re physical the way they switch up their defense, they’re a tough team to play.”
On how he handled the intensity:
“I mean, we found a way to win so I’m happy. But just like anything, I need some time to digest and go over how did we start the game and why are we not getting off to better starts? That’s something for me, as a coach, I take responsibility for. But proud of our effort as a team, we’ll evaluate our players, myself, everything that comes with it later today, but we don’t have a lot of time. It’s
figuring out a way to win, I know it’s going to be a great game whoever we play, and we’ll be ready to go and learn from this tomorrow.”
FRESHMAN FORWARD KYLE FILIPOWSKI
On what he did differently against Oregon State:
“Over the past few games, I’ve had a bit of a struggle coming out ready to get it and playing the way I should be playing. I think just always coming in at halftime, talking with the team, talking with the coaches and things not going the right way, I know that I can do so much better and I think that brings a little fire into me. I definitely have to play with that from the start moving forward, but I think that’s what got me out of my slump. Even if the shots weren’t falling, just playing my butt because that’s what the team needed.”
On the gameplan towards the end of the game centered around him and Ryan Young:
“Absolutely. I mean, that was some of the stuff that we were talking about. Getting it inside, that’s going to open up outside shots as well and I think in the beginning it was against their zone and we were just moving it around the wing and just shooting the three’s. That’s when we needed to focus on was getting it inside the paint and that opened up the rest of it.”
On if he’s proud of his late-game steal of Oregon State’s Jordan Pope:
“I’m pretty proud of that. You noticed that. That’s a lot of what people critique about me, is playing defense. I have a chip on my shoulder, showing people that I can play defense, especially against guys like Pope. So, I just have to keep that up. My coaches and teammates have been on me since the beginning to play defense. So, it’s not just me doing the work. It was a close game, and I just locked in. Even though they switched, I know what I’m capable of and I just had to dig deep.”
GRADUATE FORWARD RYAN YOUNG
On the thought process of attacking Oregon State’s zone:
“I think it’s just playing aggressive. We talked about that. That was a point of emphasis from the coaching staff before the game is that they’re a team that gets creative defensively, they throw some different zones, obviously the way you get teams that way is if you stand them up and you start having them pass the ball and play tentatively. I think that was emphasized – ‘don’t play slow’. Get to the rim, we’ve got Jeremy [Roach] and Tyrese [Proctor] who can break down guys. Get into the paint, throw the ball into [Filipowski], I mean, there’s not many people who are better than Kyle in the middle of that post. That should be a nightmare for teams that have to try and guard. Just staying aggressive and now having the defense stand us up.”
On how Duke approached getting the win in a different style:
“As Coach Scheyer mentions, it’s tournament play. And these games, you never have an easy game. Both teams are here, it’s a 12 p.m. game, people are ready to play and if you don’t come out firing, we had another slow start tonight, if we don’t come out demonstrative and aggressive, all of a sudden, it’s a dog fight. I think gritty is the right way to describe it, and I’m just proud of the way that we were able to gut it out. We’ve got a lot of things to work on, that’s how tournament play is. All these teams have three games in four days, most likely all of them are going to be like that.”
On how much he’s seen Kyle Filipowski improve in practice:
“A ton. It’s been fun to go against him. Obviously, he’s quite a talent, and he’s got a lot of different things that he can do. So it’s been awesome to go against him, all four of us – Christian [Reeves], myself, Dereck [Lively II] and [Filipowski] going at each other one-on-one and making each other better every day have been awesome. The growth he’s made has been incredible, and obviously it’s been awesome for us.”
JUNIOR GUARD JEREMY ROACH
On what separates Kyle Filipowski:
“I just think that he’s relentless on the glass right now. And when he wants to flip that switch and be relentless on the glass and do what he needs to do, that’s when he’s really in kill mode. I’ve been seeing him work every day since the preseason, he’s grown so much from the summer. I’m just blessed that he’s playing like this right now and we’re going to keep getting better.”
On Duke’s offensive struggles against Oregon State’s zone:
“I just think it’s a different look for us. We knew they were going to throw some crazy stuff at us, go zone for half the shot clock and then switch to man. We just didn’t want to stand up, and it kind of did stand us up in the first half, but we just wanted to keep being aggressive, and halftime, we came out, we wanted to go inside out.”
• Freshman Kyle Filipowski was Duke’s leading scorer for the fifth time this season with a career-high 19 points and 14 rebounds (one shy of career high) for his fourth double-double in six games.
• Filipowski has 66 rebounds through the first six games this season – more than any Duke freshman through the first six games of a season. The previous high was 65 by Mike Gminski in 1976-77.
• Graduate Ryan Young recorded his fourth career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 15 rebounds, including a career-high eight offensive boards.
• His eight offensive rebounds were the most by a Blue Devil since Mark Williams (eight) at Syracuse on Feb. 26, 2022.
• Young’s last double-double was Dec. 21, 2019 when he played at Northwestern in a game vs. DePaul, and his previous career high in rebounds was 12 on Dec. 15, 2019 vs. SIU Edwardsville.
• Young was 4-of-5 from the field and for the season is 21-of-28 from the field (.750).
