Duke basketball's Caleb Foster leads Blue Devils in sloppy, late-night win vs. Notre Dame

DURHAM — It definitely felt like a late-night ACC game.

Locked in another low-scoring, grind-it-out game against Notre Dame, No. 9 Duke basketball walked off Coach K Court with a 71-53 win against the Fighting Irish at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Following a loss at UNC in which head coach Jon Scheyer called out his team’s effort, the Blue Devils (17-5, 8-3 ACC) were better in that area on Wednesday night but still weren’t as sharp as they have been at points this season.

Caleb Foster and Sean Stewart gave Duke instant energy off the bench and helped the Blue Devils widen the gap against the Fighting Irish (7-16, 2-10) in the second half.

Foster and Mark Mitchell (13 points) led the team in scoring, but Jared McCain (11 points) joined them in double figures.

Kyle Filipowski's ho-hum performance for Duke basketball

It was another frustrating night at times for Kyle Filipowski, who picked up two quick fouls in the first half and played just seven minutes. After a scoreless first half, Filipowski picked things up briefly in the second half with eight points in 10 minutes before his fourth foul sent him to the bench. Filipowski grabbed nine rebounds, but missed seven of his nine shots.

Caleb Foster’s scoring, alley-oop to Sean Stewart

Freshman guard Caleb Foster had the best stretch of any Blue Devil with nine points and — arguably — the loudest assist Cameron Indoor Stadium has seen this season. Foster did all of that in six minutes, firing a lob to fellow freshman Sean Stewart, who threw down a two-handed dunk in the first half to raise the decibels in the building. After scoring 12 points in his last two games, Foster finished with 13 points against the Fighting Irish.

Frustrating first half for Duke

Duke built a 15-point lead with 22 points in the first 10 minutes, but the Blue Devils backpedaled for the rest of the half, scoring 11 points the rest of the way as Notre Dame crawled back into the game. After pulling down six offensive rebounds in its loss to Pitt, the Fighting Irish had seven offensive rebounds in the first half against Duke. In addition to defensive rebounding struggles, Duke didn’t score in the final two minutes and fouled a 3-point shooter.

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter. 

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball vs. Notre Dame: Caleb Foster, Blue Devils win ugly