Duke 74, Miami 63, 14.2 seconds left in the second half: Even though Miami head coach Frank Haith just called a timeout, I'm going to call this one for the Blue Devils.
That's it for us at Cameron Indoor. Hope you enjoyed following along to Duke's first ACC win of the season. We return to the live blog Jan. 6 against Maryland. Check dukechronicle.com tonight for a game story of this 74-63 win.
Duke 63, Miami 51, 3:20 left in the second half: Nice halfcourt defense by Miami to force Singler into calling a timeout. That's just enough time for me to say that Andre Dawkins has come alive for Duke. And it couldn't come at a better time, since Smith has gone quiet for the last 10 minutes. The sophomore has the Blue Devils' last four points and 16 on the game.
Duke 56, Miami 43, 7:58 left in the second half: The lead grows for Duke, and one of the less well-known Blue Devils is getting a chance to shine: Ryan Kelly.
Kelly is playing the kind of game that Krzyzewski loves—crashing the offensive boards, going for charges. His offensive rebound off a Mason Plumlee miss and his subsequent putback had the coach jumping up and down (and the sophomore so excited he started beating his chest at halfcourt). Kelly is also playing good defense on the huge center Johnson, something Duke needed during that last stretch.
Duke 48, Miami 37, 12:10 left in the second half: We've got an early contender for play of the game: Miles Plumlee's rejection of a Durand Scott dunk with 13:30 left. The junior did something very few big men do nowadays—challenge a dunk. And at the risk of being posterized, the elder Plumlee pulled off the block and the highlight-reel worthy play.
Still, Plumlee and his brother seemed to befuddled down low by Hurricane center Reggie Johnson (remember him, the one who scored seven early points for the Hurricanes?), who was relegated to the bench for most of the first half with three fouls. Since coming back in, Johnson has picked up five points and four rebounds and has too much bulk, it seems, for the Blue Devils to handle.
Duke 45, Miami 30, 15:42 left in the second half: Credit goes to the Hurricanes—they haven't gone away yet, despite their best player, Durand Scott, sitting at only two points right now. Scott's counterpart, Nolan Smith, on the other hand, now has 19.
Despite his scoring woes, it still wouldn't be wise to challenge Scott to a 40-yard dash. After Curry stole the ball at halfcourt with about 17 minutes left and took off on what looked like a wide-open fast break, Scott chased him down, flying out of nowhere to block the layup from behind. His speed and athleticism will be deadly in the conference soon.
Duke 37, Miami 24, HALFTIME: The first half ended with a bit of a whimper after that offensive explosion from Smith, but Duke has to be happy with its 13-point lead, especially after it looked so inept defending the post in the game's first few minutes.
Some stats: Smith is 5-for-9, including 3-for-6 from downtown, for 15 points. The first half had 17 total fouls (pretty friggin' high for a first half). And after losing the rebounding battle to UNC-G (!) a few days ago, the Blue Devils are winning it tonight, 24-22.
Duke 33, Miami 22, 2:39 left in the first half: I could be wrong, but I think I just saw fire emitting from the fingertips of Nolan Smith, NBA Jam style.
The senior has taken over the game, hitting back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers that had the Hurricanes reeling and Cameron the loudest it has been all night. Smith even finished his last three by holding his form for an exaggerated amount of time, a clear taunting move on Miami.
In other news: The lineup that seems to be working best for Duke is Singler, Smith, Dawkins and the Plumlees. Dawkins is making things happen on the wings and the defense the Blue Devils are playing—sort of an extended 3-2 zone—works well for the Plumlees defensively.
That lineup had no answer, though, for an utterly devastating DeQuan Jones dunk that the junior threw down about 6:50 left in the half.
Duke 20, Miami 17, 7:23 left in the first half: Not much action in that series until it neared the official timeout, and Andre Dawkins and a Hurricane traded off 3-pointers. Very physical contest so far (we're already at 11 combined fouls between the two teams), and Duke fans here don't like how the squeak of the whistle has been falling. Singler, for one, seemed to have gotten the opportunity for a 3-point play with 9:50 left after his basket dropped with contact, but the senior was called for a foul.
In your Kyrie Irving fashion watch, the freshman is keeping it understated today with a white button down and a pair of jeans with basketball shoes. It's a nice ensemble, but, I don't know, I was left thinking more effort should have been put into it. It's the first game of ACC season, after all. He gets six Seth Currys (on a scale of 10).
Duke 17, Miami 12, 11:45 left in the first half: Call that a Singler timeout!
Coming off the official timeout, the senior absolutely put the Blue Devils on his back on the next few Duke possessions. He hit a 3-point look from the wing, then knocked down a shot on Duke's subsequent possession to give the Blue Devils a 13-12 lead. Then, he found Miles Plumlee for an easy look in the post and on the next possession (whew), he grabbed an offensive board and converted the putback.
Miami's Frank Haith called a timeout, and the dormant Cameron crowd got really loud for the first time all night.
Miami 9, Duke 6, 15:27 left in the first half: After the first score of the game, an alley-oop layup by Kelly off a feed from Smith, and two straight offensive rebounds from Miles Plumlee, I was originally going to write here that Duke should use its obvious height advantage down low on the Hurricanes. After all, Miami's power forward Swoope stands only at 6-foot-6, and the Hurricanes' frontcourt bench is weak.
After seeing what a disruptive force Reggie Johnson is, though, I'm inclined to say, "What advantage?" The 303-pound center already has seven points and one rebound and is just having his way with the Plumlees in the paint. Head coach Mike Krzyzewski has taken notice, and is trotting out the big lineup of the two Plumlees and Singler.
PREGAME: With all that Dean Smith business behind us, now it's time for some ACC basketball. Tonight live in Cameron Indoor Stadium and on the Fox Sports Network, Duke takes on the 11-3 Miami Hurricanes.
Miami will trot out the lineup of Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, DeQuan Jones, Erik Swoope and Reggie Johnson.
Starting for Duke are Seth Curry, Ryan Kelly, Miles Plumlee, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith.
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