PORTLAND, Ore. — The pretty plays weren’t there for No. 8 Duke on Thursday, with transition opportunities non-existent and 3-point shots clanking off.
The Blue Devils had to turn gritty, and big guys Kyle Filipowski and Ryan Young willed them to a win.
Each center recorded a double-double with Filipowski scoring 19 points and grabbing 14 rebounds as Duke rallied in the second half to beat Oregon State, 54-51, in the Phil Knight Legacy tournament at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Young contributed 11 points while leading Duke (5-1) with 15 rebounds.
While shooting a woeful 20.7% in the second half to finish at 26.7% from the field for the game, Duke trailed by as many as six points late.
A 13-5 run, fueled mostly by Young and Filipowski, put Duke ahead 47-45.
From Jeremy Roach’s jumper in the lane at 7:33, the Blue Devils went seven minutes without hitting a field goal.
Leading 50-49, though, Filipowski rebounded a Jacob Grandison miss to give Duke a 52-49 lead with 32.3 seconds left.
Dexter Akanno hit two free throws for Oregon State (3-2) with 16.1 seconds to play, trimming Duke’s lead to a point.
After Grandison answered with two free throws for Duke, Oregon State’s Jordan Pope and Glenn Taylor missed 3-pointers in the final five seconds allowing the Blue Devils to escape with the win.
Filipowski scored 13 of his game-high total in the game’s final 12 minutes. Duke hit only 5 of 29 3-pointers (17%) for the game, including 1 of 14 in the second half.
Oregon State held its largest lead at 40-34 with 11:54 to play when Duke’s interior players finally got involved in the offense to mount a rally.
A 13-5 Duke run included eight points from Filipowski and three more from Young. Filipowski hit Duke’s first 3-pointer of the second half at 8:21 tying the score at 45-all.
Roach put Duke in front, 47-45, with a tough shot in the lane with 7:33 to play. But that was Duke’s last field goal until Filipowski’s key put back in the final minute.
After clinging to a 29-27 halftime lead despite 32% shooting, Duke opened the second half flat with six consecutive scoreless possessions.
That caused Scheyer to call a timeout with Oregon State up 33-29 lead with 16:42 to play.
But it didn’t help the Blue Devils’ struggles on offense. Duke missed its first nine shots of the half, starting 1 of 12 overall, as Oregon State built a 38-32 lead.
Duke struggled to hit shots against Oregon State’s zone defense in the game’s first 20 minutes but still took a 29-27 halftime lead.
The Blue Devils hit only 32.3% of their shots while making 4 of 15 3-pointers. One of those 3-pointers, though, came from Roach with 15 seconds left in the half as he threw one in from the left corner as the shot clock expired.
Whitehead and Filipowski each has six first-half points for Duke.
The Blue Devils led by as many as five points in the first half when an 8-0 run gave them a 16-11 lead. But Oregon State, which shot 45% in the first half, responded with six points in a row to regain the lead.
The Blue Devils built another five-point lead when Ryan Young scored in a lane giving them a 26-21 lead with 2:33 to play until halftime. But Duke only made one shot the rest of the half — Roach’s 3-pointer that gave it a 29-27 halftime lead.
