DURHAM, N.C. — Thanks to a quirk of the schedule and the somewhat unexpected state of the ACC, Duke got a chance to climb the ladder, playing three of the four teams above it in the standings in an 11-day span, starting with Pittsburgh.
Thanks to the best game of Kyle Filipowski’s short Duke career and the sudden emergence of Dereck Lively II as an offensive threat, the Blue Devils forged a mighty second-half comeback Wednesday to ascend a rung and move alongside the surprising Panthers at 4-2 in the conference on with a 77-69 win.
Duke may not have expected to be looking up at Pitt in the standings at this point in the season, but there’s certainly no argument the way Duke has played at times. And for much of Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it looked like the Blue Devils would still be looking up at the Panthers.
