For Duke’s first two games, Nolan Smith could only sit and watch from the bench.
Tuesday night, he showed his teammates what they had been missing. Behind a career-high 24 points from the junior guard, the No. 9 Blue Devils (3-0) crushed Charlotte 101-59 in the second round of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
“I was definitely itching to play,” Smith said. “Watching those two games, watching my team play, I was getting anxious, so I was ready to get back out there.”
Duke stumbled out of the gates Monday night against Coastal Carolina, but had no such slow start against the 49ers (2-1), jumping out to a 14-2 lead in just over three minutes of play. Smith accounted for eight of those 14 points, scoring his first bucket of the season off a drive right through the middle of the lane.
But the shooting guard provided more than a scoring lift—his presence on the court gave the Blue Devils a familiarity and confidence they had missed while he was suspended.
“With Nolan back it just felt a lot more comfortable, and he was a big spark for us in the beginning of the game,” junior Kyle Singler said.
Smith’s offensive outburst—combined with Duke’s stifling man-to-man defense—proved too much for Charlotte to handle, and the 49ers showed as much by coughing up the ball seven times in the game’s first four minutes.
“I think our defense set the tone for the whole game in that we didn’t give up fast breaks,” head coach Mike Krzyzewki said. “Lance and then Ryan Kelly did a good job of helping Nolan to just make them a half-court team. And then at the halfcourt I thought that Jon, Kyle and Nolan’s experience on the perimeter did not give them the open shots.”
Forward Miles Plumlee’s defensive efforts also paid dividends when he stripped Phil Jones at the 18-minute mark and streaked down the court for a tomahawk slam dunk that sent the Cameron Crazies into a frenzy.
He proved to be a weapon on the other side of the court as well. Refusing to be bullied down low by the 6-foot-10 Jones, the sophomore finished the game with 15 points and 11 rebounds, both career highs.
At halftime, the Blue Devils were up by 30 and limited Charlotte to only 27 points in the first period. The only 49er able to make a dent in Duke’s formidable front line was 6-foot-6 forward Shamari Spears, a former Boston College player who transferred to Charlotte.
At 245 pounds, Spears was able to create shooting space on the low blocks despite his lack of height. Duke showed no sign of letting up after intermission, going on a 14-5 run to start the second half.
Three minutes into the offensive burst, Jon Scheyer notched the prettiest of his five total assists, tossing a lob to Plumlee that the big man slammed home to complete a perfectly executed alley-oop.
In addition to playing the role of distributor, Scheyer found his 3-point stroke as well, leading the team with four buckets from downtown en route to 20 points on the night. Yet Smith continued to steal the show with his explosive play.
After Scheyer blocked Dijuan Harris and recovered the loose ball, he shot a quick outlet pass to freshman Andre Dawkins, who found Smith streaking down the sideline ahead of the pack. He proceeded to rise up above the rim for a monstrous dunk that put the Blue Devils up by 37.
Duke ultimately built its lead to 42 with just under three minutes remaining as Charlotte continued to struggle on the offensive end, shooting only 32.3 percent in the second half.
All in all, four Blue Devils scored in double figures—Singler chipped in 17—and demonstrated the scoring depth that should serve them well for the rest of the season.
“We do [have a lot of options] and we have an inside option,” Krzyzewski said. “We should not have a go-to guy; we should have a go-to team. If you have one guy that you go to, you can defend that guy better than if you have a team that you can go to. That’s why I think we are going to be a good basketball team—because we have that balance.”
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