Duke basketball: Refs rob Jon Scheyer of signature win
Duke basketball could have made more winning plays to give first-year head coach Jon Scheyer a signature victory on the road against the No. 8 Virginia Cavaliers (19-4, 11-3 ACC) on Saturday. After all, the team went almost eight minutes without a field goal late in the second half of the battle between the conference's two best defenses.
Even so, the unranked Blue Devils (17-8, 8-6 ACC) should have received two free throws at the end of regulation, needing to make only one to come away with the win. Instead, the refs robbed them of that opportunity, and Scheyer's then-deflated bunch lost in overtime, 69-62.
With one second remaining in regulation and the game tied at 58-58, struggling Duke basketball freshman forward Kyle Filipowski, who posted his first zero-point outing as a Blue Devil, caught a sidelines inbounds pass and took the ball hard to the rack.
The refs blew the whistle on Virginia guard Reece Beekman, who clearly caught Filipowski across the arm while elbowing him in the ribs. Nevertheless, after reviewing the play, the guys in stripes inexplicably ruled no free throws for Filipowski despite the clock showing 0.2 ticks left at the time of the foul.
Beekman somehow got credit for the block in the box score, and the game went into overtime, where the Cavaliers outgunned the Blue Devils from start to finish.
And the Duke basketball faithful on social media, including 2010 national champ Andre Dawkins, were not shy about voicing their displeasure:
This was Duke's first trip to Charlottesville as an unranked team since 1996. It was these Blue Devils' second straight loss, both on the road, and dropped the team to 2-6 in opponents' gyms.
Duke, which held a 27-25 lead at halftime and responded admirably to a 10-2 Virginia run after the break, deserved the win. The group offset its 22-9 disadvantage in the turnover department with a 39-23 rebounding edge and better free throw shooting than Virginia (9-for-12 by the Blue Devils compared to 9-for-22 by the Cavaliers).
But they came up one trip to the charity stripe short of a W that would have all but secured an NCAA Tournament bid.
Four Duke basketball players finished with double-digit point totals: junior guard Jeremy Roach (16), freshman guard Tyrese Proctor (14), graduate guard Jacob Grandison (11), and freshman forward Dariq Whitehead (10).
Next on the slate for Duke is a home bout against the unranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-15, 2-12 ACC) at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday (ESPN).
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