March Rewind: '87 Duke Survives Injuries to Ferry, Snyder to Face Bob Knight

What's March without Duke Tournament basketball? With this year's ACC and NCAA Tournaments cancelled, we'll go back in time to look at the top Blue Devils postseason games from each date in March and early April. Special thanks to SportsReference.com for boxscores and the Duke Library for the newspaper archive.

Duke hobbled into the Sweet 16 with a 65-60 win over Xavier in Indianapolis.

Quin Snyder was limited to three minutes as he battled injury, and Danny Ferry fought through a hip pointer to score eight points and five rebounds in 21 minutes.

The 5-seed Blue Devils trailed 13-seed Xavier for most of the second half before the team’s role players stepped up. Billy King had a steal and breakaway dunk to even the score with under four minutes to play. Robert Brickey then took a charge with 58 seconds left to give the Blue Devils the ball with a chance to win. Kevin Strickland, who struggled with his shot all day, rebounded his own miss and drew a foul. He hit both free throws. Strickland, a backup all year pressed into expanded duty with the injuries, scored a team-high 20 in the Blue Devils’ opening-round win.

Duke outscored Xavier 11-2 down the stretch. Point guard Tommy Amaker led the way with 20 points. Strickland overcame a 2-for-13 shooting performance to score 12 with nine rebounds and nine assists. Brickey came off the bench to score 12.

Now Duke heads to Columbus for an emotional reunion as Coach Mike Krzyzewski faces his mentor, Indiana’s Bobby Knight, in a Sweet 16 game.

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