COLUMBUS, OHIO — Apparently, Ohio State thinks Duke is all talk. It might have proven it Tuesday night.
In an unusual move, the sold-out crowd at Value City Arena was treated to a pre-game hype video taking aim particularly at the Blue Devils. Footage of Dick Vitale and other ESPN analysts praising the No. 3 Blue Devils was mocked, and ended with the tagline, “It’s time to talk about THIS,” as the No. 2 Buckeyes took the floor.
After Ohio State’s performance in Columbus, it now looks like no one will be talking about anything else.
In the premier game of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, the Buckeyes (7-0) handed Duke its worst loss since its season ending blowout to Villanova in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, defeating the Blue Devils 85-63. Four Ohio State starters scored more than 16 points, and the team shot 59 percent from the field compared to Duke’s 47 percent clip.
“Sometimes you just get your butt kicked. We got our butt kicked,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said following the loss. “Tonight my butt’s sore.”
After being knocked down by an 11-0 run to start the game, the Blue Devils (7-1) battled back behind the offense of Mason Plumlee and Austin Rivers to cut the lead to one point with 12:33 to go in the first half. The Buckeyes responded, though, as Jared Sullinger, William Buford and Deshuan Thomas combined to score 19 of Ohio State’s next 23 points as the lead ballooned to 13.
But the true dagger didn’t come until later in the half. After a three-point play by Rivers brought the lead back down to ten with 4:15 to go, Duke looked poised to make a run and narrow the deficit before halftime. While Buford answered Rivers with an impressive fade-away jumper, however, the Blue Devils lost their shooting touch. Tyler Thornton, Quinn Cook and Rivers missed four open threes, two of which were airballs, and Duke would only score two points the rest of the half.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were flummoxed by Thomas, who scored nine straight Buckeye points following Buford’s jumper and even exploited a rare zone defense implemented by Krzyzewski.
Duke found itself down 19 at the half, and would not close the lead to less than 17 the rest of the way.
“They went out there and they took a punch at us,” Rivers said. “We just put our hands up and fell back into the ropes. We never ever struck back, not once.”
Although Duke’s defense was the main culprit of the blowout loss, the Blue Devils also struggled to find an offensive rhythm in a hostile environment. Rivers and Plumlee accounted for 38 of Duke’s 63 points and took nearly 55 percent of the team’s shots.
Seth Curry scored only seven points, his lowest total of the year, after taking only four shots in the first half. Ryan Kelly, coming off MVP honors at the Maui Invitational, was invisible in Columbus. The junior captain took just two shots in 14 first-half minutes, and played only one minute the rest of the way. He finished with no points and three rebounds.
The team accumulated just ten assists and is now ranked 242nd in Division-I basketball in assists per game.
According to Krzyzewski, though, the trip to Maui played a major role in Duke’s lackluster effort Tuesday. The Blue Devils had just come off a grueling schedule of seven games in thirteen days, while Ohio State has not left Columbus yet this season.
“They haven’t been on the road. We just got back from a hellacious tournament in Maui,” Krzyzewski said. “We weren’t able to get juiced up in this short amount of time to go on the road. That had a bearing on it. Even if we did that I’m not sure if we would have beaten that team.”
The Buckeyes were also on the end of every bounce—in the first half alone Ohio State had ten second chance points, compared to none by Duke. And a team that is shooting below 35 percent from beyond the 3-point arc this season went 5-for-5 in the second half to stymie any hope of a Blue Devil run.
Regardless, Duke was never able to overcome those first half runs that turned a top 5 matchup into a laugher.
“I just think they were more ready to play,” Plumlee said. “You can tell by the way the game started. We just didn’t come ready.”
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