Freshman Frank Jackson led Duke in scoring off the bench for the third time in four games.

UNCASVILLE, CONN.—By the end of last season, the Duke frontcourt consisted of only Marshall Plumlee and small doses of an inexperienced Chase Jeter, pretty much making small ball a necessity for the Blue Devils.

Just four games into this season, Duke is already facing comparable depth issues—but it still found a way to pull out a victory.

After starting center Chase Jeter went down early in the first half with a left-ankle injury, the No. 1 Blue Devils bounced back from their first loss of the year and defeated Penn State 78-68 Saturday at Mohegan Sun Arena in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off semifinals. Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the game that Jeter was having trouble pushing off his foot and called him “doubtful” for tomorrow’s championship game against either No. 21 Rhode Island.

The Rams knocked off No. 24 Cincinnati 76-71 in the second semifinal led by 18 points from guard E.C. Matthews.

“Coming back from the Olympics this summer, I didn’t think we’d be in this situation. I thought we’d be a really deep team, and we’re not right now,” Krzyzewski said. “We just have to deal with reality and try to get as rested as possible and whoever we play will be a top-20 team, and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow. But today, I’m proud of what my guys did. It was a big-time win for us.”

The Blue Devils (3-1) played just five players for the majority of the second half—forward Amile Jefferson down low flanked by four guards on the outside—as sophomore Antonio Vrankovic was the only bench player to see significant minutes. All five of those players finished in double-digits, led by freshman Frank Jackson's 17.

After igniting the Duke offense late in the second half against the No. 7 Kansas Tuesday, Jackson wasted little time in making his presence felt against the Nittany Lions. He was the first player off the bench for the Blue Devils, hitting a 3-pointer on his first possession and showing off his arsenal of timely jumpers and aggressive drives once again.

Jefferson—who Krzyzewski said after the game was also a little banged up—led the way down low with 16 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks, logging 37 minutes as the team’s only post threat. The Philadelphia native went 6-of-9 from the field against an undersized Nittany Lion squad and had just one turnover after committing seven against the Jayhawks.

“Amile has been hurt this week, and he has 15 rebounds and 16 points and then Matt [Jones] plays most of the last two ballgames in the second half with four fouls. The veteran play of these two kids really saved us,” Krzyzewski said. “In the second half when we’re struggling with numbers, [Penn State] just kept pushing the ball down the court, and we had enough good defensive exchanges to stop them.”

Although Duke led comfortably for most of the second half after building a 36-24 lead at the half, Penn State (2-2) drew within nine points with just more than nine minutes left to play.

But Jones promptly drove for a left-handed layup that restored the lead back to double digits, and Grayson Allen completed an old-fashioned three-point play on the next possession, putting the Blue Devil lead at 65-51 and ending any real comeback threat.

The Nittany Lions clawed within eight with 2:36 left in the game led by 20 points from Tony Carr, but a turnover and missed shots derailed the Penn State comeback effort down the stretch.

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“Unfortunately, we’ve seen this situation before. Obviously we don’t want guys to go down,” Jones said. “But to be able to have that ‘Next man up’ [mentality], coach does a really good job of motivating us. We didn’t come to Duke to lose. We didn’t come to Duke to be second-fiddle or bow down to anybody.”

With a weakened frontcourt, Duke’s perimeter-oriented attack led the way once again, as Allen, Jackson, Jones and Luke Kennard all scored in double figures and combined for 59 points. The Blue Devils rode a hot streak late in the first half and connected on 9-of-24 from downtown overall.

The Nittany Lions shot just 6-of-21 from 3-point range, missing several opportunities to make the game closer in the second half.

Allen also had a minor injury scare in the first half—as he did Tuesday—but returned to play the entire second half. The Jacksonville, Fla., native did not appear hindered with his mobility on the court and looked much improved in the second half, including a thunderous two-handed dunk as he drove through the lane.

He finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting and eight rebounds, all of which came on the defensive end.

“We’re doing enough just to win. It was good enough to win,” Krzyzewski said. “Amile had four blocks, and then Grayson’s defensive rebounding and Amile’s defensive rebounding were really good—that’s kind of interior defense too. What we normally do, we’re kind of trying to win with the hand that’s dealt to us right now—a lot of bluffs.”