Kyle Filipowski suffers apparent injury in first half vs. Bucknell

The Duke Blue Devils suffered a major injury on Friday night when their superstar forward, Kyle Filipowski, was backing down a Bucknell defender, but then crumbled to the ground in pain. He then had to be carried off the floor by his teammates to the locker room in Cameron Indoor. It looked to be a right ankle injury, but he returned to the floor at the start of the second half and appeared to be fine.

He left the contest with just over four minutes left in the first half. Filipowski had eight points in Friday night’s game, before exiting with the injury. He came out of the locker room a minute after his teammates did at the beginning of the second half.

Duke has stretched their lead to 67-38 with 13:02 remaining in the second half. The Blue Devils went on a 20-3 run over a four-minute span in the second half to break the game open. Duke has also dominated the glass on Friday night. The game is being televised on the ACC Network. Mark Mitchell has been the leading scorer for the Blue Devils against Bucknell.

Duke recently lost to Arizona, 78-73. A few days later, they bounced back with a victory over Michigan State, 74-65. Up next, they’ll face off against the Stanford Cardinal on November 19th. Tip time for that one is slated for 3:00 PM EST.

A staple of Duke’s 2022 recruiting class, Filipowski was a five-star and the No. 5 overall player in the class for head coach Jon Scheyer. Filipowski’s play on the floor backed up those rankings he had entering college as well. Despite being in a star-studded class, Filipowski emerged as the top star of the group.

Filipowski averaged 15.1 points per game to go along with 8.9 rebounds per game during his freshman season, both of which led his team statistically. Filipowski only failed to score in double figures five times during the 2022-23 season and posted a double-double 16 times.

Filipowski was key during Duke’s three-game run to the 2023 ACC Tournament title, scoring 22, 17 and 20 points in those three games. But in the NCAA Tournament, Filipowski struggled. He had just six points in the opening-round win over Oral Roberts. In the second-round loss to Tennessee, Filipowski scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but also had four turnovers and was 0-for-5 from three-point land.

On3’s Riley Gates also contributed to this article.