DURHAM, N.C. — So that’s what it looks like when Duke puts all the pieces together, huh?
Because there’s the Final Four contender we’ve been waiting on.
After late-game mistakes doomed the Blue Devils in two of their first three high-profile nonconference games — a five-point loss to Kentucky in the Champions Classic, and a three-point loss to Kansas in Las Vegas last week — Wednesday night’s home tilt with undefeated Auburn was Duke’s chance to rewrite the narrative. To flip the script. To prove that Jon Scheyer’s freshmen-laden team, rebuilt this offseason around 17-year-old superstar Cooper Flagg, had learned from its miscues, and that it did have the chops to hang with another national title contender.
No. 9 Duke 84, No. 2 Auburn 78.
Consider that a point proven.
Buoyed by five-star freshman Isaiah Evans’ career-high 18 points — all of which came in the first half — Duke outlasted the Tigers, in one of only two wins by the ACC in this year’s ACC-SEC Challenge. It is the sort of statement, resume-defining win that Scheyer’s team desperately needed — and further validation of Flagg as one of college basketball’s best players, regardless of age. The 6-foot-9 wing scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, to go along with 11 rebounds, four steals, three assists, two blocks, and no turnovers.
That last point is as important as ever and should silence some of the questions that have surrounded him since his two turnovers against Kentucky in the final minute cost Duke the game.
But in a battle of the nation’s top offense versus its top defense, Auburn was the aggressor early, jumping out to a 13-2 run that forced a fuming Scheyer to call timeout less than four minutes into the game. But you can understand Scheyer’s frustration; the Tigers had made five of their six shots — four of them assisted — by then, completely outmuscling his top-rated defense in the process.
But whatever Scheyer said in that huddle? Clearly it resonated. Duke immediately ran off its own 13-3 run, holding Auburn’s offense — which entered Wednesday night ranked No. 1 nationally in adjusted efficiency, per KenPom — to three-plus scoreless minutes and just 1-of-9 shooting immediately thereafter. That included checking Johni Broome, who entered the game as the frontrunner for National Player of the Year, firmly in check. Fresh off Maui Invitational MVP honors, Broome only had five first-half points, missing seven of his nine attempts.
The nation’s No. 1 defense, at least per KenPom’s adjusted efficiency rankings, finally showed.
And so did Evans, a 6-foot-6 freshman who didn’t play a single minute against Kentucky or Kansas.
The former five-star recruit entered the game with 12:39 to play and promptly provided the one thing Duke desperately needed: shooting. He canned one 3 off a pindown, and then in the span of 47 seconds, two more — the latter of which made it a one-point game, and forced Auburn coach Bruce Pearl to call timeout. But no whistle was going to quell Cameron Indoor at that point — or, apparently, slow down Evans.
Because those three triples were just the start of Evans’ breakout performance. It was actually his fourth first-half 3 (of an eventual six) that finally got Duke over the hump, giving the Blue Devils their first lead with 6:27 until halftime.
That came as part of a larger 15-2 Duke run … which Auburn — or more specifically, freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford — quickly answered, with the Tigers’ five-star first-year canning two deep 3s of his own. But the final four minutes before intermission belonged to Duke, who used an 11-4 run down the stretch to build a seven-point halftime lead.
But against the nation’s best offense, that was never going to be nearly enough of a margin. And although Duke built its lead to 12 in the opening minutes after halftime, Auburn eventually punched back with a 14-4 run of its own, putting the Tigers firmly within striking distance the rest of the game.
Pearl got Broome — who scored 15 of his eventual 20 in the second half — involved on the short roll, with his best player already charging toward the basket. And Pettiford, again, was huge, personally scoring or assisting on three straight possessions once Duke got its lead to double digits. His fourth 3, with 8:58 to play, cut the deficit to four — and even when he picked up his fourth personal foul less than 30 seconds later, Pearl kept his five-star freshman — whose 20 points tied Broome for the Tigers’ scoring lead — in the game. He couldn’t afford not to.
And the game mostly held in that four, five-point window thereafter. Pettiford’s teardrop floater with 5:06 made it a two-point game, and Auburn blocked Cooper Flagg on the other end … only to cede the offensive rebound to Tyrese Proctor, who drained a borderline logo 3 as the shot clock expired to push the lead back to five. Scheyer, hunched over on the sideline, spread his arms as the scene around him went berserk, and mouthed the words every Duke fan was surely feeling: “Let’s go.”
Auburn didn’t make another field goal for over three and half minutes thereafter, while Proctor made another clutch turnaround jumper with 3:05 to play that pushed the lead back to seven.
Ultimately, down the stretch, Duke’s defense won out, just like Scheyer drew it up in the preseason.
He always imagined his team could play, and win, these kinds of games — and after Wednesday, it finally has.
Required reading
- 2025 NBA Draft Big Board: Does Cooper Flagg have competition for No. 1 spot?
(Photo: Lance King / Getty Images)
