Something hadn’t been totally right with Kyle Singler’s game this year.
Sure, he’s had games where he’s been great on the defensive end, and, yes, he’s rarely an offensive liability. But something was always missing, even in those games in which he showed himself deserving of his ACC Preseason Player of the Year honors.
Singler has simply not shot the ball well. He’s 40.7 percent from the field for the year, down from 44.1 percent last season. Even more telling, he’s shot 30.3 percent from 3-point land this season after shooting 38.3 percent during his sophomore year.
That last figure will go up after his magnificent performance Thursday night. Singler finished with a career-high 30 points on 9-of-17 shooting and 8-of-10 from downtown during an 86-67 rout of No. 21 Georgia Tech (16-6, 4-4 in the ACC) at Cameron Indoor Stadium that kept Duke in first place in the conference standings.
“It was the first game all year that I’ve shot the ball well,” Singler said bluntly. “I just got into a rhythm, I took open shots and I started knocking them down.”
Singler started the game as cold as the tents in K-Ville, missing his first 3-point shot and not making a field goal until the 12-minute mark. He heated up pretty quickly, though, finishing with 10 points in the half, including a buzzer beater that he called a “silent dagger”.
“He’s been right there all season, I mean, he really has,” senior guard Jon Scheyer said. “He’s been stroking it in practice all the time and he was due for a game like this. I mean, it’s going to happen with Kyle. He’s a great shooter, a great player.”
Singler was responsible for No. 10 Duke (18-4, 6-2) gradually pulling away from the Yellow Jackets. He hit a 3-pointer right out of the locker room, and then, after Krzyzewski waved at the student section while screaming, “Come on!” Singler made another, sending the crowd to a decibel level typically only reached by an F-14. He would make seven in a row by the time he was done.
He paid back the adoration, waving at the crowd and bunny-hopping all the way back to his defensive position. After finishing 2-of-13 shooting in Atlanta against Georgia Tech, he had exorcised his shooting demons.
“Tonight was the first night I really saw him in a great rhythm on the perimeter and it was fun to watch,” sophomore guard Nolan Smith said. “Every time he shot the ball I was excited because I knew it was going in.”
Of course, Singler couldn’t do it all by himself. Duke’s defense, markedly absent in Washington, D.C. last weekend, completely shut down Zachery Peacock, who scored the Yellow Jackets’ first 11 points and then didn’t score again.
And Derrick Favors, the athletic phenom who’s a projected top-5 pick in June’s NBA Draft, only had three shot attempts by the seven-minute mark of the second half. He finished with just eight points, thanks in large part to smothering defense from Miles Plumlee, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas.
“You’ve got to play physical with [Favors],” Thomas said. “I tried to make sure that his touches were limited and to stay in front of him. Keep contacting, let him know that you’re defending him.”
The big guys also held their own on the rebounding front. Duke outrebounded Georgia Tech 27-15 in the first half—and led by 12 at the break—and 40-32 in the end.
“They got 12 offensive rebounds in the first half,” Yellow Jackets head coach Paul Hewitt said. “That was enough to give them that 12-point lead.”
The game took on a physical tone early on and never let up. Fifty-two total fouls were committed and, more than any other part of the game, hard fouls and questionable calls riled the fans up. The physicality of the game didn’t surprise Thomas.
“It was a very physical game. But that’s how it is when two teams compete at that level,” Thomas said. “Both teams want to win, whatever you’ve got to do to win, do it.”
In the end, though, the story of the game was Singler achieving a career-high in points, but more importantly for Duke, showing that he still has the touch from deep that helped make him the unique, versatile threat he is known to be.
“In this type of game,” Krzyzewski said, “that is a spectacular shooting performance.”
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