The Duke basketball team had a huge game at home on Wednesday night against Baylor basketball, and the Blue Devils got the win in a thriller. The Bears had a small lead for a good portion of the second half, and it looked like Duke might suffer another tough loss. However, the Blue Devils kicked things into a different gear in the final 10 minutes or so of the game, and they made the winning plays down the stretch.

Duke basketball clearly has a very talented team this year, but they have come up short in most of their big games. So far this season, the Blue Devils have three close losses, one against Arizona, one against Arkansas and one against Georgia Tech. They needed to get this win against Baylor, and they got the job done.

“A lot of people talk about toughness & I thought our team showed a lot of mental toughness these last few of weeks,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said, according to a tweet from David Shumate. “Two tough losses on the road & our guys just came back, blocked out the noise & went to work – so proud of them.”

The pressure was certainly on Duke heading into this game. This was the last chance that the Blue Devils had to pickup a win against one the nation's best teams in their non-conference schedule, and they took advantage of the opportunity. They showed a lot of toughness to get that win, and they especially did in the late stages of the game.

Duke led by 10 points in the first half after getting out to a hot start, but Baylor stormed back and led 54-48 with about 11 minutes remaining. At this point, all of the pressure really was on the Blue Devils. Duke responded well, however, and they closed the game on a 30-16 run to earn a 78-70 win.

Next up for Duke is a home game against Queens on December 30th, and then ACC conference play will begin to ramp up. That is when the real season begins.