DUBAI — Despite a slow start to the final game of their international tour, the Blue Devils cruised to an easy victory over the United Arab Emirates national team.
Duke outscored its opponent 86-66 to complete an undefeated international tour of China and Dubai. Although a number of the players in the locker room noted a lack of energy in the game, head coach Mike Krzyzewski as well as juniors Ryan Kelly and Andre Dawkins all pointed out the spirited play by junior forward Mason Plumlee, who finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds.
“He did everything well,” Krzyzewski said. “I thought he was enthusiastic, he was tough [and] he played with great energy…. I think Mason showed a lot of veteran leadership the way he played tonight.”
After the game, Krzyzewski acknowledged that the lengthy trip may have been a factor in the team’s performance, but he also gave credit to the UAE team for making the most of each possession. The game did not begin until 9:30 p.m. local time in order to accommodate observance of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, but the coach said Duke was happy to be flexible and that the change did not affect performance.
The Blue Devils won by the largest margin of any contest in the Friendship Games and did not trail in the game after seizing a 5-3 lead on a 3-point shot by Andre Dawkins. The junior led the Blue Devils with 20 points, including 6 makes from behind the arc.
“They were hitting shots and they play really fast, and that kind of threw us off at first,” Dawkins said. “Once we got into a groove, we started playing a bit better. We had to get some stops and some easy baskets.”
During the second quarter, Duke found more separation and ended the half with a 10-3 run fueled by six points from Plumlee. The Blue Devils led at the break and ended the half up 43-31.
“You saw Mason really going after it,” Kelly said. “The bad thing was that not that many other people followed…. It’s just something we have to take and learn from.”
Freshman guard Quinn Cook remained sidelined with an injury to his knee. Cook tore his right lateral meniscus last August and received surgery but said he “rushed” back to the court because he wanted to play for his senior year at Oak Hill Academy. He said as he was trying to recover from the injury he did not spend time strengthening his hip, which is crucial to the recovery process for that type of injury. His rehabilitation at Duke now centers around those muscles.
“I can start playing in September—workouts with the team, pickup,” Cook said. “I’ll definitely be ready by October.”
The Duke players, who begin classes Monday, are scheduled to depart for the United States tomorrow. Given the threat posed by Hurricane Irene, their departure time is now a number of hours earlier. The plane will leave from the Dubai International Airport at 4 p.m. tomorrow afternoon and will arrive in North Carolina at approximately 5:30 a.m. on Saturday. Duke athletics personnel and Anthony Travel, the travel agency in charge of the trip, are continuing to monitor the weather.
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