Even in defeat, Kentucky joins Duke in providing basketball drama in season opener
Kentucky and Duke did not duplicate the stunning blowout to open the 2018-19 season. Nor did this season’s opening game Tuesday have a historic clutch shot like Christian Laettner made to eliminate UK in the 1992 NCAA Tournament.
Yet a Kentucky-Duke game automatically commands attention and rehash. This one was big on move-counter move.
Duke’s poor three-point shooting and Kentucky’s zealous offensive rebounding kept it close.
Even a 22-5 second-half run by Duke failed to remove the chess-match quality.
Kentucky answered with an 11-0 run to set up a dramatic finish in a setting (Madison Square Garden) known for athletics memories..
As if a reprise of last season’s struggles in the final minutes, Kentucky was outplayed down the stretch and lost 79-71.
The outcome had a historic footnote.
Duke beat Kentucky in an opening game of a season for the fourth time. The Blue Devils also did it in 2018-19 (118-84), 1988-89 (80-55) and 1979-80 (82-76 in overtime).
The only school to get Kentucky’s season started with a loss that many times is Georgetown College: 1903, 1904, 1905 and 1922.
Duke also improved its record in opening games with Mike Krzyzewski as coach to 40-2.
Transfers Sahvir Wheeler and Oscar Tshiebwe starred for UK. Each had a double-double. Wheeler had 16 points and 10 assists. Tshiebwe had 17 points and 19 rebounds.
Even though Duke made only one of 13 three-point shots, it wasn’t enough for the Cats.
Kentucky never led in the first half and trailed for 17 minutes and 32 seconds.
But Duke led only 39-35 at halftime.
Two factors seemed to weigh heavily. Duke made only one of nine three-point shots.
And Kentucky grabbed 12 offensive rebounds.
Tshiebwe had seven. And UK might have led at halftime if he did not pick up a second foul with 7:50 left. He went to the bench and sat out the rest of the half.
Kentucky was in catch-up mode almost immediately. UK missed its first five shots and had made only eight of its first 25 shots.
Yet, Tshiebwe set a tone by grabbing six offensive rebounds seven minutes into the game.
Duke twice led by as much as seven points late in the first half.
A pair of late threes by Kellan Grady kept Kentucky close.
But foul trouble loomed as a possible factor in the second half. Besides Tshiebwe, four other UK players had two fouls: Jacob Toppin, Davion Mintz, TyTy Washington and Keion Brooks. Overall, the referees called 13 fouls on Kentucky.
Wheeler led Kentucky with 12 points and five assists at the break. Banchero led Duke with 12 points.
A three-pointer by Brooks from the top of the key gave Kentucky its first lead: 42-41 with 18:33 remaining.
The lead lasted 29 seconds and was part of basketball’s version of Ping-pong: eight lead changes in less than three minutes.
The back-and-forth ended with Kentucky trailing 51-48.
Duke sandwiched two transition baskets around an air-ball three-point shot by Washington. That prompted a Kentucky timeout with 15:27 left.
Barely a minute later, Tshiebwe picked up his third foul.
This came in a three-plus minute span when Duke outscored Kentucky 14-2 to take its largest lead: 61-50.
Freshman Trevor Keels contributed back-to-back blows. He hit a jumper from the top of the key. Then when UK double-teamed him on the next possession, Keels found a teammate for a dunk that put Duke ahead 59-50. That prompted a Kentucky timeout with 13:04 left.
Banchero capped what became a 22-5 Duke run with back-to-back baskets over Brooks. That shots gave Duke its largest lead — 69-54 — with 9:21 left.
Just when it seemed Kentucky was fated to lose, the Cats went on an 11-0 keyed by Tshiebwe’s relentless energy.
Seemingly inevitably, Kentucky trailed only 69-65 with more than six minutes left. It was Kentucky-Duke time.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 12:01 AM.
