Coming into the season, much of the talk about the top-ranked Blue Devils revolved around their star-studded freshmen class.
But with three of Duke’s freshmen on the bench in street clothes, it was the Blue Devil returners that carried the load in Duke’s season opener.
Fueled by five players in double-figures, the top-ranked Blue Devils made quick work of Marist in a 94-49 blowout victory Friday. Duke played without the star-studded trio of Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden, who are all nursing a variety of lower-body injuries.
“We’re a little bit undermanned now. No one feels sorry for us because everyone thinks we have an excessive amount of men," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski, noting that Tatum might have tried to come back too early to practice following a foot sprain. "There’s no timetable for their return.... I'm going to be really adamant on taking a longer time instead of a shorter time.”
After the Blue Devils (1-0) jumped out to an early 12-0 lead by hitting their first three shots from beyond the arc, Duke clamped down on defense and held the Red Foxes (0-1) to just 24.2 percent shooting. The Blue Devils applied full-court pressure from the opening tip and Krzyzewski continued to rotate his players to keep fresh legs on the court.
On offense, Duke moved the ball around and took high quality shots all evening. The Blue Devils scored in a variety of ways with the penetration of guards Grayson Allen and Frank Jackson setting up Duke’s perimeter shooters for open triples. The Blue Devils finished 8-of-22 from beyond the arc.
Although Duke received contributions across the board, sophomores Chase Jeter and Luke Kennard were particularly key in jumpstarting the Blue Devils. Following Kennard’s explosive performances in Duke’s two exhibitions, the guard made his mark once again with 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting and served as the team’s source of instant offense. Fellow guard Grayson Allen also had 16, and freshman Frank Jackson led the team in scoring with 18 points on 6-of-15 shooting.
“We started off the game playing very well together as a group,” Kennard said. “We really emphasized sharing the ball and creating for each other so we did a great job of that tonight. But we have a lot of playmakers on the team. We have a lot of guys that can create for themselves and for other guys and that’s just what makes us a special team.”
Down low, Jeter appeared much more confident than at any point last season and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds in 18 minutes. The Blue Devils counted on the Las Vegas native to serve as the primary defender once the Red Foxes broke the press and Jeter delivered by recording a pair of blocks and defending without fouling—a big issue for the sophomore a year ago.
“I’m finally coming into my own here at Duke,” Jeter said. “I always knew I could do this and it’s just finally happening for me now. It’s much different than last year for me, being able to get in and be composed and have that type of mindset to be relaxed out there on the court.”
With a 26-point lead at halftime, Duke opted to play zone defense at times in the final 20 minutes. But the new scheme did little to alter the Blue Devil defense, which remained active and continued to disrupt the passing lanes. Duke came away with several steals in the second half and turned their takeaways into emphatic finishes, highlighted by breakaway dunks for freshman Javin DeLaurier and senior Matt Jones.
When Marist was able to get a shot off, the Red Foxes had trouble finding the bottom of the net. Marist finished the game just 3-of-25 from deep. All-MAAC guard Khallid Hart led the way for the Red Foxes with 13 points, but was frustrated most of the night and finished just 4-of-14 from the field.
"We’re a very veteran ballclub, guys like Luke and Chase,” Jones said. “We have guys that can play basketball and we’re very diverse and very disruptive. If we all just play like that, we can be good and hold the fort down until the other guys come back.”
The Blue Devils will next take the floor tomorrow night for a matchup against Grand Canyon at 5:30 p.m. in their second early-round game in the Hall-of-Fame Tip-Off.
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