No. 9 Duke survives late surge by No. 2 Auburn for massive upset win at home

Auburn's tenure at the top of the college basketball world was very short-lived.

Roughly an hour after No.

1 Kansas was dethroned in Omaha by Creighton, the No.

2 Tigers were knocked off 84-78 by No.

9 Duke in Durham.

Both were among a multitude of ranked teams that fell Wednesday, in a night akin to the first round of the NCAA Tournament more so than early December.

Tyrese Proctor hit two massive three-pointers late in the second half to keep Auburn at arm's length while it attempted an ill-fated comeback.

RESE FROM HILLSBOROUGH (ESPN) pic.twitter.com/79Zqiz38WW Freshman phenom Cooper Flagg led the Blue Devils with 22 points, recording a double-double with 11 rebounds as well.

Duke made half of its field goals on the night but practically won the game from the free-throw line hitting 17 shots from the charity stripe and only offering the Tigers 12 attempts of their own.

But most impressively, freshman Isaiah Evans came off the bench to hit six shots from beyond the arc.

He was most notably the difference-maker on the court in this matchup.

Isaiah Evans hopped off the bench and hit six 3s in Duke's win over No.

2 Auburn pic.twitter.com/qdK0AEwnif The loss is a massive blow to Auburn's early-season undefeated run, despite not playing poorly against a very good Duke squad.

It's the closest the Tigers have been to the No.

1 spot in quite some time, but it's unlikely they'll get back to this position without an incredible run in SEC play.

Auburn (7-1) has five more nonconference matchups on its schedule before conference play begins, including a huge contest at home against No.

8 Purdue on Dec.

21.

Duke (6-2) will open its ACC schedule against Louisville on Dec.

8 before finishing its nonconference slate with three more relatively easy matchups..

This article has been shared from the original article on yardbarker, here is the link to the original article:

https://www.yardbarker.com/college_basketball/articles/no_9_duke_survives_late_surge_by_no_2_auburn_for_massive_upset_win_at_home/s1_13132_41352071