Ohio State men’s basketball is Duke’s latest victim at Cameron Indoor Arena.
Duke senior forward Mason Plumlee scored 21 points and hauled in 17 rebounds and freshman guard Rasheed Sulaimon added 17 points of his own as the No. 2-ranked Blue Devils (7-0) came from behind to defeat No. 4-ranked OSU (4-1), 73-68, Wednesday.
In a rematch of OSU’s 85-63 rout of Duke in Columbus last season, the Blue Devils’ stretched their non-conference home winning streak to 97 games with the win. The last non-Atlantic Coast Conference team to beat Duke on its home court was St. John’s in February of 2000.
After trailing for most of the first half and well into the second half, Duke went up by six points with less than a minute to play. OSU managed to pull within a score a 66-64 but was unable to close the gap. The Buckeyes sent the Blue Devils to the foul line while attempting to climb back into the game and Duke made its free throws to clinch the win.
OSU junior guard Aaron Craft didn’t last the full 40 minutes, fouling out with 48.4 seconds to play in regulation having scored 11 points. Craft was just 3-of-15 from the floor in the game, though. OSU junior forward Deshaun Thomas, who missed a significant portion of the first half due to foul trouble, scored a team-high 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
The Buckeyes were level with Duke in rebounding – each side grabbed 35 – but held a 16-7 advantage on the offensive glass and were unable to take advantage.
For the game, OSU shot 34 percent from the field on 23-of-68 shooting while Duke connected on 24-of-51 from the field, a 46 percent clip.
The Buckeyes took a nine-point lead into half, but Duke slowly chipped away in the second half before grabbing the lead at 56-53 with less than five minutes to play.
OSU was leading going into half, 31-23. The discussion about Duke at half among TV commentators and on social media regarded the possibility of the Blue Devils being fatigued – their last game was played in the Bahamas against current No. 6-ranked team Louisville in the Battle 4 Atlantic tournament championship game. Duke erased any doubt of a jet-lag stained performance when it mattered.
OSU’s defense was suffocating in the first half, and it held the Blue Devils to a stretch of 10-plus minutes without a field goal. The Buckeyes also led Duke on the offensive glass, hauling in 11 boards to the hosts’ three.
Duke has also beaten No. 5 Louisville and No. 8 Kentucky this season.
OSU will continue the non-conference portion of its schedule on Saturday against Northern Kentucky. Tip-off at the Schottenstein Center is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.