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Notre Dame upsets No. 7 Duke in first ACC game

Jan 5, 2014 - 2:00 AM South Bend, IN (SportsNetwork.com) - Eric Atkins tallied 19 points and 11 assists to lead Notre Dame to a 79-77 upset over seventh-ranked Duke in the program's first game as a member of the ACC.

Pat Connaughton went for 16 points, eight rebounds and five helpers for the Irish (10-4, 1-0 ACC), who snapped Duke's streak of six consecutive wins to open conference play. Garrick Sherman reached double figures for the 11th straight tilt with 14 points.

Notre Dame beat Duke (11-3, 0-1) for just the third time in 22 meetings all- time and snapped an 11-game losing skid to the Blue Devils.

"I want us to expect these types of wins," said Atkins.

Rodney Hood netted 27 points to lead the visitors, while Quinn Cook added 22 as Duke's five-game winning streak came to an end. Freshman phenom Jabari Parker, who had scored double digits in all 13 of his collegiate games entering Saturday, had just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting in the setback.

Andre Dawkins' 3 midway through the second half gave Duke its largest lead at 60-50, but the Fighting Irish showed they had plenty of fight to come back. Demetrius Jackson followed Dawkins with a triple of his own, capping a stretch of nine straight possessions with made field goals for both teams.

"I thought Jackson's 3 when it was 60-50 was a quick answer to our 10-point lead," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "I think that was the biggest shot of the game."

Atkins put the finishing touches on a 10-0 ND run with a jumper to tie it at 60-apiece. Minutes later, freshman Steve Vasturia canned his third trey of the game before Connaughton drove in for a righty jam over Parker, giving the Irish their largest lead at 70-64.

"We just focused on going one play at a time," said Sherman. "We were fine, we just had to keep playing and make our run and have faith."

Duke scored the next four points, but the hosts responded once again when Atkins' backdoor feed to Connaughton set up another explosive dunk.

Duke cut its deficit to just a point three times in the final two minutes with a series of free throws around an Atkins layup and Sherman jump hook.

Sherman's free throw made it 77-75 with 16.9 ticks on the clock. On the ensuing inbounds, Hood drove the length of the floor but got caught in the air under the basket and threw the ball right to Jackson, who made a pair from the charity stripe.

After Amile Jefferson's putback layup cut it to two with 1.4 seconds left, Parker picked off Connaughton's baseball pass to midcourt, but his halfcourt heave fell well short as the buzzer sounded.

Hood made consecutive triples at the end of the first half to give Duke a 37-35 edge at the break. The opening 20 minutes featured eight lead changes and five ties.

Game Notes

The Fighting Irish improved to 126-11 in their last 137 home tilts ... Notre Dame outscored Duke 44-16 in the paint ... Both benches contributed 16 points ... Notre Dame won the rebounding margin 39-30 and improved to 63-5 since the start of the 2010-11 season when outrebounding opponents ... Duke fell to 27-7 under Krzyzewski in conference openers ... Hood has made at least one 3- pointer in 11 straight games.