Duke basketball upends Michigan in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Duke got what it had been waiting for all season—a balanced performance.

Behind some productive bench play, hard-nosed defense and tenacity on the glass, the No. 10 Blue Devils defeated No. 22 Michigan 79-69 Tuesday night in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

For the first time this season, junior Quinn Cook led the way for the Blue Devils (7-2) with 24 points, becoming the first player other than freshman Jabari Parker or redshirt sophomore Rodney Hood to pace Duke this season. All 24 of Cook's points came in the second half, including a perfect 10-of-10 performance from the line.

"Quinn was magnificent," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "The whole game, even though he didn't score in the first half, he managed the team well. We told him to be very aggressive in the second half."

Although Cook stole the show in the second half, it was productive play from the Blue Devils' bench that gave them the spark they needed.

Matt Jones played a career-high 18 minutes, and although he scored just two points and did not hit a shot from the floor, his defense on Michigan's leading scorer, guard Nik Stauskas, kept Michigan's offense from finding a rhythm throughout the first half.

The Wolverines (5-3) shot just 8-of-26 from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, and although the Blue Devils managed to hit just 4-of-13 3-point attempts, Duke went into the locker room with a 32-22 advantage.

Stauskas, who entered the contest averaging a team-high 20.3 points per contest, managed just four points and did not hit a field goal in the contest.

"We took away their best player, Stauskas, and we took away their three-point shots," Hood said. "We did a great job. We talked, and we gained rebounds and we scrapped for loose balls. We can score the ball—that's not the issue. We have to have that defensive mindset, and that's what's going to get it for us this year."

Shifting away from its frenetic run-and-gun pace, the Blue Devils chose to slow things down on both ends of the floor against Michigan, milking the shot clock on offense and grinding out defensive possessions to get stops.

"Duke is known for defense. We got tired of people saying that we couldn't play defense," Cook said. "ESPN was doing specials on us about not playing defense—well deserved because we weren't—but we got tired of that."

Playing the most productive minutes of his career, redshirt sophomore Marshall Plumlee battled down low with Michigan forward Mitch McGary. Although McGary recorded a game-high 14 rebounds, it was Duke that outrebounded the Wolverines 32-31. Many of Plumlee's biggest plays did not show up in the box score—he altered shots, clogged up passing lanes and fought on the glass to make an impact.

Parker made crucial buckets early in the second half to maintain Duke's comfortable lead. The Chicago native attacked the paint relentlessly, even when he was being guarded by McGary, and put his post moves on display in the second period.

Michigan began to claw its way back in the second half, trimming Duke's lead to 46-40 with 9:01 to play. In stepped graduate student Andre Dawkins, who had played just three minutes in the first half. Dawkins came off the bench shooting, knocking down two 3-pointers in a minute to push his team's lead back to double digits.

"Those two threes were just huge," Krzyzewski said. "They're going to make a push... and Andre—boom, boom—put us up by 12. I'm really happy for him."

Dawkins' sweet shooting appeared to spark his teammates' shooting stroke as well. Cook, who dished out nine assists in the game, got into the act as well, knocking down two 3-pointers down the stretch, including a big shot with less than five minutes to play that pushed Duke's lead to 16.

Earning their first win against a ranked opponent this season, the Blue Devils played what could have been their most complete game of the season. After struggling through nonconference games in the NIT Season Tip-off, which culminated in a loss to Arizona, it appears Duke is finally beginning to find its identity as a team.

"We're getting better. We're a little more cohesive. We're getting to know one another a little bit more, and we have to keep that going," Krzyzewski said. "The best way we can become cohesive is on the defensive end."