Duke basketball guard Andre Dawkins announced last week that he will return for the 2013-14 season. After Dawkins spent this season redshirting, we’re counting down his top-five performances as a Blue Devil.
No. 3: Dawkins drops career-high 28 points against Bradley
The date: Dec. 8, 2010
The game: Duke 83, Bradley 48
Dawkins statline: 28 points on 10-of-17 from the field, including eight 3-pointers.
The breakdown: Dawkins' lights-out shooting performance was impressive, but came against a lowly Bradley squad in a blowout victory. Although 28 points is nothing to shake your fist at, this performance becomes truly impressive when you put the game into context.
Duke squared off with the Braves just two days after losing star point guard Kyrie Irving in a win against Butler. Irving would miss the remainder of the regular season, and his absence would be felt on both ends of the floor. Entering the starting lineup for Irving was a young Dawkins, who made a limited impact as a freshman but was looking to solidify his presence in the rotation during his sophomore season.
He did not disappoint.
Dawkins knocked down his first three of the game on the Blue Devils second possession. Although he drilled a total of four 3-pointers in the first half, Dawkins' teammates struggled around him, combining for 1-for-10 from beyond the arc against Bradley's zone defense. Duke went into halftime with a comfortable 32-18 halftime lead, but was not satisfied with its first-half performance.
But when the Blue Devils emerged from the locker room, it was Dawkins who led their shooting barrage. Duke hit nine of his first 11 attempts from 3-point land in the second half, and Dawkins' continued to have the hot hand. As his teammates Kyle Singler and Seth Curry continued to heat up around him, the Blue Devils coasted to an easy victory.
The quote: “We were really unhappy with the fact that we became a jump shooting team in the first half,” Krzyzewski said. “We needed to hit the post more, and we did in the second half.... Therefore, our threes in the second half seemed a result of a bunch of guys playing together, instead of just one guy shooting.”
Previous Dawkins performances:
No. 5: Dawkins scores 16 off the bench against Miami
No. 4: Dawkins hits two threes to help send Duke to the Final Four
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