ACC Basketball: Duke makes it two straight on road with win in South Bend

Duke has gotten into a bit of groove as they have won two straight ACC basketball games on the road.

Duke still doesn’t look like the team we all expected them to be at the beginning of the season, but they have hit a groove over the last two games.

After Luke Kennard went bananas in the second half to pull out a win in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest, the Blue Devils went into South Bend and snagged a 84-74 win thanks to a balanced attack and an energized defense.

While Duke has depth issues (only six players played more than 10 minutes), they showed how dangerous they can be when everyone is clicking on all cylinders.

Grayson Allen was excellent, as he fought off a crowd that chanted ‘tripper’ throughout the game and booed him every time he touched the basketball. Allen finished with 21 points on 6-of-13 shooting (including 6-of-6 from the free throw line). His late game three pointer against Wake Forest might’ve sparked his confidence moving forward.

Jayson Tatum was really good as well, though. The freshman forward played the four position for the majority of the night and was rather efficient, shooting 8-of-14 from the floor. Tatum (19 points and 14 boards) has been a ball stopper in recent games, but he made better decisions and took better shots on Monday evening.

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Then there was Luke Kennard, Amile Jefferson, Matt Jones and Harry Giles who also deserve mention. Kennard scored 16 points before fouling out. Jefferson was phenomenal in ball screens until he took a seat on the bench due to fouls. Jones was his usual self, defending with toughness and energy, and scoring timely baskets. And Giles was solid in the nine minutes he played. He entered the game when Jefferson fouled out, grabbed a couple of key rebounds and finished a put back near the rim.

Just think about how scary it is to keep track of all those options. Notre Dame had major issues, as Mike Brey was switching up the defensive assignments on almost a possession-by-possession basis. V.J. Beachem, 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting, was excellent on offense but proved to be a sieve on defense. The Irish just didn’t have the weapons defensively to hold up against Allen, Kennard, and Tatum.

But Duke’s defense also played terrific. They held the Irish, an elite three-point shooting team, to 33 percent from beyond the arc and held their own in pick-and-roll situations. They showed some poor rim protection down the stretch and let Bonzie Colson (17 points and nine rebounds) get going, but overall, they shut down Matt Farrell (11 points on 3-of-9 shooting) and Steve Vasturia (seven points on 1-of-9 shooting).

With Jeff Capel pushing the right buttons, their best players starting to play better and the defense coming together, Duke is finally having fun again. And that’s a big deal for a Blue Devils team that looked disconnected just a week ago.

Meanwhile, Notre Dame has lost four out of their last five games — their only win during that stretch is against Syracuse. What’s most concerning about Notre Dame is the fact that their best players (Colson, Beachem, Farrell, and Vasturia) never seem to all play well on the same night. Colson has been consistent, but Beachem has been up-and-down, Farrell has tailed off a bit and Vasturia is in a major funk.

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Plus, the Irish missed an uncharacteristic amount of free throws and were sleeping on times defensively versus Duke. They gave the Blue Devils easy buckets around the rim and sometimes wide open lanes on inbounds plays. This was a game they could’ve won, but instead, the Irish are facing some major adversity in the ACC.

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