Monday night was supposed to be about Harry Giles' debut in a Duke uniform as the No. 5 Blue Devils played their first game with a full complement of players.
Instead, Tennessee State stole the show for more than 25 minutes with its physicality on both ends of the court.
The Tigers went toe-to-toe with Duke before the Blue Devils pulled away led by sophomore Luke Kennard's hot shooting for a 65-55 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Although Duke looked extremely rusty following an eight-day exam break, Kennard scored 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting and made a trio of 3-pointers to break a slow-paced game open.
After Tennessee State took a 36-34 lead with 15:03 left in the game, junior Grayson Allen—who had 12 points thanks to 11 free-throw attempts—and Kennard nailed three consecutive 3-pointers to highlight a 25-3 spurt. Freshman Jayson Tatum struggled shooting early on once again but came on late to finish with 14 points and nine rebounds.
“We had a veteran group out on the court and we got together and knew we needed to get a few stops, knew we needed to pick it up a little bit because we couldn’t find a rhythm offensively and defensively throughout the game,” Kennard said. “That 10 minutes where we played like a veteran group, like a team we need to be, even a couple of young guys played like older guys—that’s what we need.”
The Blue Devils (11-1) entered Monday's contest as the nation's most efficient offense according to basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy. But Tennessee State (8-3) slowed Duke down with its tenacious man-to-man defense and a methodical offense that frequently went deep into the shot clock.
Kennard was the only Blue Devil to find a rhythm from the field, making all three of his first-half shots to stake Duke a 27-23 halftime lead as his teammates combined to shoot 4-of-22 coming off an eight-day break for exams.
The Tigers were the more physical team in the first half, outscoring the home team 14-6 in the paint.
“Obviously the break was a gift and a curse…. Not playing a while, you can get out of sync,” senior Matt Jones said. “I don’t think we competed today—that’s one thing no matter who we have on the court, we have to compete.”
Although the Blue Devils gained momentum at the end of the first half thanks to Tennessee State turnovers and 17 free-throw attempts, the Tigers were the team to come out of the locker room with more energy.
Tennessee State made six of its first eight shots in the second half to take a 36-34 lead before a Kennard layup and an Allen transition 3-pointer gave Duke the lead for good.
“Guys started talking. We started playing unselfishly instead of just throwing the ball in and playing one on one,” Allen said. “We started to get stops. I think at one point, we had about five stops in a row, and that led to our offense.”
Despite struggling with his shot early on, Tatum then fed Kennard for consecutive transition triples moments later to highlight the game-changing spurt.
Tatum started alongside graduate student Amile Jefferson, and the duo went just 6-of-18 from the field but collected 27 rebounds as the Blue Devils matched the Tigers' strength inside after halftime.
Jefferson's 18 boards were a career-high, and Tatum made consecutive 3-pointers to stretch Duke's lead to 20 with a little more than seven minutes left in the game.
“I thought it was a great half for Jayson. He’s been out with injury, and tonight, he did dirty work in that second half,” Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “His defensive rebounding led to three straight 3-point shots, which broke the game open a little bit.”
Tatum's fellow freshman star Giles missed a mid-range jump shot after entering the game at the under-12 media timeout in the first half and did not record any stats in four minutes. Freshman center Marques Bolden also struggled to make an impact in his six first-half minutes Monday.
Coming off its lowest-scoring performance this season, Duke will return to the court Wednesday at 6 p.m. when it takes on Elon at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Blue Devils will have nine days off after that game before opening ACC play at Virginia Tech Dec. 31.
“With conference play right around the corner, we have to start doing things quickly and get it going now,” Allen said. “We’re not changing our team for [the freshmen]. They’re coming on board for us. We know the core that we have, so we’re not starting from scratch and catering to them.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.