They say the devil is in the details. But in Durham, the Blue Devils are in the details—and numbers.
5
With 4:37 left on the clock and 59-54 on the scoreboard, it seemed that freshman center Kyle Filipowski’s third-consecutive double-double effort was just enough to place the men’s basketball team in position for another victory at Tuesday’s Champions Classic against Kansas. But after Kansas scored on five straight possessions, the writing was on the wall for the Blue Devils, who could only respond with five points of their own to the Jayhawks’ 15. Following a Filipowski layup, Kansas scored seven consecutive points and answered junior captain Jeremy Roach’s 3-pointer with an alley-oop to Gradey Dick that left the score 63-62. The Jayhawks didn’t look back, keeping the lead in the final minutes for the to end the game with a 69-64 score victory.
24
At the N.C .State Invite, it seemed that the Duke swimming and diving's goal was not just to rewrite the record books, but to utterly destroy them. The program saw its previous top-10 times shattered 24 times in just three days of competition, concluding the invite with 18 NCAA B-cuts. Junior Sarah Foley led the way after smashing the school record in the 200-yard breaststroke just one day after breaking her own program record in the 100-yard breaststroke by 0.23 seconds.
88
After a grueling match that left both teams scoreless well into the second half, women’s soccer defeated Texas 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA tournament, scoring its lone goal in the 88th minute. Assisted by graduate midfielder Mackenzie Pluck’s corner kick, junior defender Katie Groff sent a header into the back of the net, punching the team’s ticket to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year. The Blue Devils had 20 total shots with five on goal, and Pluck’s corner kick was the ninth of the game—marking the dramatic climax of a contest that had been crescendoing since the opening minute. Duke also took down South Carolina 2-1 in the Sweet 16 and is advancing to the Elite Eight.
2
If good things come in threes, then twos stop just short. After scoring a touchdown with just 47 seconds left on the clock, Duke football was unable to complete the game-tying two-point conversion, leaving the score 28-26 in its loss to Pittsburgh. The defense, which has established a pattern of winning the turnover battle, was able to register two takeaways—interceptions by graduate student Datrone Young and redshirt senior Shaka Heyward—but was unable to convert either into points.
40
Duke’s women’s basketball scored 40 points in the paint against Texas A&M, countering its opponents sharpshooting with the scoring strategy head coach Kara Lawson called “critical on a night when our shots weren’t falling.” In the 71-52 victory over the Aggies, only four of the Blue Devils' 24 made shots were from outside the paint. Meanwhile, the Aggies took a reversed approach—only 18 of their points came in the paint, while they attempted to close the gap with six 3-pointers against Duke’s one.
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Audrey Wang is a Trinity senior and data editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume. She was previously editor-in-chief for Volume 119.