CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — With two minutes gone since Duke’s last field goal, Virginia cut the Blue Devils’ lead to 17 points, setting up the team’s last hope for a comeback. Jon Scheyer made sure that didn’t happen.
With 12:33 remaining, the Blue Devil senior tipped the ball away from Mike Scott and into the Virginia backcourt. Scott slowly meandered after the ball while Scheyer dove for it and passed it off to Andre Dawkins, who dished it to a wide-open Mason Plumlee for an easy two. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski jumped off the bench and motioned upwards with his hands as if trying to bring the crowd to life. In this case, he was both praising his senior’s play and urging his team to raise its defensive intensity even higher.
“That was a big-time play,” Krzyzewski said. “You need that. That kid [Scheyer] has probably played the best for us all year and Mason finishes and you get excited when you see your guys making those plays.”
Scheyer echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“That’s just a play that I would make at any point in the game, whether it’s a 20-point game or a two-point game,” Scheyer said. “That’s just something that coach has always talked about—playing a loose ball is just as big as scoring a bucket. That type of play is a play I love to make.”
On the ensuing Duke possession, Scheyer dashed through the lane and hit an off-balance layup to put Duke up 21 with 11:43 remaining in the game. As Scheyer turned up the court, he energetically swung his arm in a windmill motion, fists clenched. The yells from the bench boomed throughout the subdued John Paul Jones Arena.
“When you are playing in an opposing stadium, you want it to be quiet like that,” Scheyer said. “That was a good sign for us.”
The emotion was clear. After three subpar performances from Scheyer against Miami, Virginia Tech and Tulsa—in which he shot just 24 percent from the field—the senior was in early-season form. It took 20 minutes for the co-captain to get going, but Scheyer may have revealed the pent-up frustration from his recent run of poor play. Scheyer scored seven points in first half, but the guard erupted in the second, making five of his six shots, including all three from long range.
Krzyzewski gave Scheyer a breather with 9:23 remaining in the game and the Blue Devils leading 54-29. The guard re-entered the contest nearly three minutes later with Duke leading by 22 points. After two free throws by junior Kyle Singler and a layup by Virginia forward Jerome Meyinsse, Scheyer earned an easy layup and drained one final three to send the last of the Cavalier fans home.
Scheyer exited the contest for good with just over four minutes remaining and watched from the bench as his lesser-used teammates finished off the game. Scheyer’s expression on the bench, a big grin, displayed what his second-half performance showed: He’s back.
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