Freshman Brandon Ingram struggled in Duke's first three marquee matchups of the season, but the swingman rose to the occasion under the bright lights Wednesday.
After a back-and-forth first 10 minutes, No. 7 Duke pulled away from Indiana to win comfortably 94-74 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Ingram poured in 18 of his game-high 24 points—a career high—in the first half, showing for the first time in his young career the ability to take over a game in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge.
"Shooters keep shooting, so if I’m knocking one down, then I’ll just keep shooting and if my teammates find me, I know they have trust in me that I’ll knock the shot down," Ingram said.
The Kinston, N.C., native made seven of his eight shots in the opening 20 minutes, including a career-high four 3-pointers. The last of those triples—a corner trey set up by a Grayson Allen drive on the fast break—gave Duke (7-1) a 28-26 lead, the first basket of what became a 7-0 spurt out of the under-eight media timeout during which the Blue Devils seized control of the game and never looked back.
Led by Ingram and junior Matt Jones—who scored a career-high 23 points—Duke drilled 11-of-24 3-pointers, helping the Blue Devils survive a 10-0 Hoosier run early in the first half. At first, the Hoosiers left Jones alone to key on Duke's other perimeter weapons. That proved to be a mistake as the DeSoto, Texas, native knocked down five 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 19 shot attempts.
"[Duke assistant coach] Jon Scheyer was on him: ‘Shoot it, shoot it,’" Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He shot it 11 times, 11 threes. He made five of them and worked his butt off defensively."
Ingram and Jones stole the spotlight with their hot shooting, but senior forward Amile Jefferson quietly stuffed the stat sheet Wednesday, coming close to recording the first Blue Devil triple-double since Sheldon Williams accomplished the feat in 2006. The Philadelphia native finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and a a career-high eight assists.
Indiana (5-3) flashed varied defensive looks at Duke all night, attempting to confuse the Blue Devil offense. But Duke was consistently able to break down the Hoosiers off the dribble, and Jefferson found open teammates operating from around the free-throw line.
"For whatever reason, Amile became like a point guard," Krzyzewski said. "[To handle the defensive switches] you need alert players, and Amile in that position as the big guy or the second big guy, he’s in a position to make plays. And he made them."
Jefferson made plays with the ball in his hands, but also teamed with Jones to deliver the hustle plays that kept possession after possession alive. Duke steamrolled Indiana on the glass, collecting 19 offensive rebounds—six of which were Jefferson's—that produced 26 second-chance points.
Thanks to a 10-0 spurt, Indiana led for the middle of the first half, until a pair of Ingram triples reignited the Duke offense and the Blue Devil advantage soon extended back to 13 points late in the first half. But in the final 1:03, Indiana's Nick Zeisloft and Collin Hartman dropped in corner 3-pointers to keep things interesting.
With Duke leading by nine at intermission, Krzyzewski was bumped by an Indiana player as the teams jogged past each other to head to the locker room. Krzyzewski appeared to take exception and spoke with Indiana head coach Tom Crean before leaving the floor, but downplayed the incident during his postgame press conference.
Between the defensive lapses late in the half, the bump and other aspects of a game that got a little chippy at times, the Blue Devils had plenty to think about at halftime. And once again, they channeled those thoughts to deliver a game-sealing tear to begin the second half.
Duke rattled off a 9-0 run to begin the period, doubling its halftime lead to 60-42. On the defensive end, the Blue Devils held Indiana without a field goal for the first 8:29, throttling any hopes of a comeback.
"We let up and we don’t do that here. You can’t have let-ups," Jefferson said. "All our guys came out in the second half with an edge, with a verve, and that helped us get going very quickly."
Duke's 9-0 spurt was a near-repeat of Sunday's game against Utah State, when the Blue Devils blitzed the Aggies with a 15-0 run. By the time Indiana's offense finally came alive, it was too late to mount a comeback against a balanced Duke offense that dished out 18 assists and had four players reach double-figures.
"We didn’t get enough pressure on them to put them in enough uncomfortable situations," Crean said. "When you get caught over-helping on a really good passing team, which they are, that creates problems.
Duke plays its final game before taking a respite for final exams Saturday against Buffalo at 5:15 p.m.
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