No. 1 Duke stunned by Stephen F. Austin at home
DURHAM, N.C. With a stunning breakaway layup at the overtime buzzer, Stephen F. Austin did what no team outside the ACC had done in nearly 20 years knock off Duke at home.
DURHAM, N.C. — With a stunning breakaway layup at the overtime buzzer, Stephen F. Austin did what no team outside the ACC had done in nearly 20 years — knock off Duke at home.
The Lumberjacks and their high-pressure, turnover-forcing defense took over Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Duke lost its grip on everything: The ball, the game, its prized home-court winning streak — and, of course, the No. 1 ranking.
Stephen F. Austin beat Duke 85-83 on Tuesday night, with Nathan Bain’s layup at the overtime buzzer bringing a jarring end to the Blue Devils’ 150-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents.
The Lumberjacks became the first non-Atlantic Coast Conference team to beat Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium since St. John’s in February 2000, and became the second unranked team to upset a No. 1-ranked school on its home floor in two weeks after Evansville went into Rupp Arena and stunned Kentucky 67-64.
“I told our players, ‘Banners can’t beat us tonight,’” Stephen F. Austin coach Kyle Keller said. “The players have to beat us.”
Duke had the ball in the closing seconds of overtime, but Tre Jones missed a jumper with about 15 seconds left and Wendell Moore rebounded it.
With the Lumberjacks’ defense hounding Duke, the ball kicked away from Matthew Hurt in a scramble with about 3 seconds left and Gavin Kensmil snatched it and passed upcourt — directly to Bain, who went the length of the floor for a buzzer-beating layup.
“I looked up at the clock and saw I had 2.6 seconds, just going as fast as I can to lay it up. Like a layup drill. Prayed it would go in,” Bain said. “I wasn’t sure if the guy was going to foul me or not. Get it on the rim to give us a chance.”
Kevon Harris scored 26 points and Gavin Kensmil added 15 for the Lumberjacks (5-1).
“It means the world,” Harris said.
Vernon Carey had 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Blue Devils (6-1), who had 22 turnovers and were just 11 of 24 from the free-throw line in the second half.
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski “told us at halftime about getting back” on defense, guard Cassius Stanley said. “It’s kind of what we deserved. We didn’t listen to him, and it hurt us eventually at the end.”
Tre Jones had 17 points and 12 assists — but also eight turnovers against a high-pressure Stephen F. Austin defense that is the nation’s best at generating takeaways. The Lumberjacks, who entered at No. 262 in Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency rankings, lead Division I by forcing 25.8 turnovers per game — a huge challenge, it turned out, for a young Duke team that started four freshmen and a sophomore and has had issues taking care of the ball.
“Deny the ball, pressure teams, turn them over,” Bain said. “People don’t like pressure. Everyone wants to be comfortable, be able to see the floor. It’s a winning formula — you deny passes, you pressure the ball, make people play one-on-one, and that’s hard. You can’t do that for 40 minutes. You have to have some great lungs.”
There were two ties and a lead change in the final minute of regulation, with Kensmil tying it at 81 with his layup with 19 seconds remaining. That left Duke with the last shot before OT, but after Jones missed a turnaround jumper with about 4 seconds left, the rebound was batted around to Stanley, whose jumper off the glass went off the rim at the buzzer.
No. 3 MICHIGAN STATE 93, GEORGIA 85
LAHAINA, Hawaii — Cassius Winston had 28 points and eight assists, and Michigan State withstood Anthony Edwards’ second-half outburst to beat Georgia at the Maui Invitational.
Michigan State (4-2) was sharp early, building a 28-point lead early in the second half. Once Edwards got rolling, the Spartans had no answer.
Projected as a lottery pick, the 6-foot-5 Edwards brought the Bulldogs (3-2) back almost entirely by himself, scoring 33 of his 37 points in the second half.
Edwards hit 7 of 13 3s — many of those contested — in the second half and threw a two-handed, overhead bounce pass to Rayshaun Hammonds for a layup to pull Georgia within 75-73.
Michigan State gathered itself after the Edwards’ onslaught, stretching the lead back to nine before hitting four straight free throws in the final 34 seconds.
Michigan State coach Tom Izzo called Winston a “shell of himself” after a quiet game in the Maui opener against Virginia Tech.
No. 4 KANSAS 71, BYU 56
LAHAINA — David McCormack scored 16 points, Ochai Agbaji added 14 and Kansas turned a huge second half into a trip to the Maui Invitational title game with a victory over Brigham Young.
The Jayhawks (5-1) dominated inside against the smaller Cougars and did a good job of rotating out to their shooters to earn a shot at their third Maui Invitational championship.
Kansas opened the second half with a big run to build a double-digit lead and outscored BYU 42-18 in the paint.
The Jayhawks will face Dayton in Wednesday’s title game.
BYU (4-3) was bothered Kansas’ length on defense, finishing 9 for 33 from behind the 3-point line. TJ Haws had 16 points, but Cougars leading scorer Jake Toolson was held to seven on 3-of-9 shooting.
No. 18 AUBURN 79, RICHMOND 65
NEW YORK — Samir Doughty scored 22 points to lead Auburn to a win over Richmond in the championship game of the Legends Classic.
Austin Wiley, who was named the tournament MVP, scored 18 points. He joined Doughty on the all-tournament team, along with Wisconsin’s Nate Reuvers, and Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard and Grant Golden.
Daniel Purifoy chipped in with 13 for Auburn, which improved to 7-0 overall, and 3-1 in four all-time meetings against the Spiders.
Following a five-game winning streak, Richmond dropped to 5-1 with its first loss of the season.
Golden led the Spiders with 14.
No. 21 COLORADO 71, CLEMSON 67
LAS VEGAS — Tyler Bey had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Colorado over Clemson in the championship game of the MGM Resorts Main Event.
D’Shawn Schwartz scored 12 points, Evan Battey added 11 and McKinley Wright IV chipped in with 10 for the Buffaloes (5-0). Bey, who attended Las Vegas High School, was selected MVP of the event.
Clemson (5-2) had a chance to win in the final seconds, but Wright stripped freshman Al-Amir Dawes, drew a foul and sank two free throws to seal it.
Colorado took its first lead with 7:52 left when Wright stole the ball from Tevin Mack and punctuated the breakaway with a two-handed dunk.