BEIJING, CHINA — With a red-hot shooting touch to begin the game, the Blue Devils jumped out to an early lead and never trailed in their 93-78 victory.
Duke outscored the China junior national team 28-6 in the opening minutes and did not miss a shot before scoring 16 points. Junior guard Seth Curry scored eight of the Blue Devils’ first 16 points, and senior forward Miles Plumlee scored six straight during a 12-0 surge to end the run.
“I was just able to get open a few times, and I kind of got my rhythm early by knocking down my first shot,” said Curry, who scored 16 points on the night and shot 3-for-6 from long range. “It was good for us to get out to a good lead.”
The game got as close as five points in the second half when China opened with a 7-1 run. Duke responded with a 3-point shot by junior Ryan Kelly that put the Blue Devils up 56-47 a minute into the third quarter and began a 9-2 run for Duke.
Six players scored in double digits for the Blue Devils in what became their highest-scoring game so far of the series. Kelly led the team for the second game in a row with 20 points, and junior forward Mason Plumlee scored 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Senior Miles Plumlee added 14 points to go along with his 13 boards—more than twice as many as any other player on either team.
The elder Plumlee said after the game that the team has come together and improved over the course of its three games in China. He added that the opportunity to play games this far before the regular season is “really special.”
Now in his final year in a Duke uniform, Miles said he’s looking forward to taking a leadership role on the team. The coaching staff, he acknowledged, is increasingly looking for him to be a vocal leader on the floor.
“That’s what I’ve watched all the great leaders we’ve had on the teams I’ve played on the past three years do, and that’s why we’ve won,” Plumlee said. “That’s going to be a huge part of what we’re going to do this year.”
Following the game, Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said that the competition in China was great for his team because the Chinese team was competitive and played strong. He called both squads “good basketball teams” and said that both sides played their best at the end of the three-game series.
“I think our frontcourt, the past two ballgames, has been the difference, with the Plumlees and Ryan Kelly,” Krzyzewski said. “They’ve really done a great job.”
In light of the recent brawl between Georgetown and the Bayi Rockets that garnered international attention, Krzyzewski was asked what he thought of the sportsmanship of Chinese teams in general, which the reporter said have been criticized recently for their behavior. Krzyzewski said in his experience—both with Duke and the U.S. national team—Chinese teams have exhibited great sportsmanship and that one of the reasons the Blue Devils came to China for the tour was because of the country’s great passion for the game of basketball.
“Their team [demonstrated] the highest level of sportsmanship, and I thought our team [did] too,” Krzyzewski said. “I thought in all three games, the teams played really hard, physical and clean.”
The contest was the last of the three games that Duke will play in China, all of which the Blue Devils won by double digits. The Blue Devils will tour the Great Wall tomorrow before departing for the United Arab Emirates the following morning. The final game of the Friendship Games will take place in Dubai Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. local time, or 1:30 EST.
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