ATLANTA— No. 6 Duke men’s basketball meets its first ranked opponent in No. 19 Kentucky. The Blue Blood contest in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena broke for halftime with the Blue Devils leading a contentious 46-37 game:
In the cat house
From looks alone, it wasn’t clear if State Farm Arena had more Duke or Kentucky fans — the blue, after all, is the same. But the Wildcat faithful howled louder than the Blue Devil contingent did, especially when Duke had the ball. Kentucky was registered as the home team Tuesday night, and that’s exactly how it felt in Atlanta, even if Durham and Lexington, Ky., are nearly the exact same distance away from the Champions Classic site. For the young Blue Devils, this is an adjustment, as so far they have only played in Cameron Indoor Stadium in front of the dedicated Crazies.
Moving quickly
The Blue Devils had numerous fast breaks in the first half, all of which they converted into buckets. Sion James, Tyrese Proctor, Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel all took their turns running down the court off rebounds or steals (Duke had three), and James slammed a dunk while the rest of them followed through on layups. The Blue Devils forced seven turnovers from the Wildcats and gave up only one of its own. So while Kentucky let Duke have 11 points from giving up possession, the Blue Devils lost nothing in return.
Kentucky triples early
It took them a couple of minutes to look comfortable on the court, but the Wildcats caught up to the energetic Blue Devils with a slew of threes. In the first six minutes of the matchup, Kentucky went 5-for-5 from the arc; the first triple that the white-clad team missed had to do with a foul on Flagg. Graduate forward Andrew Carr — a Wake Forest transfer — took care of two of those triples before Kentucky head coach Mark Pope subbed him out. After that, the Wildcats didn’t miss a three until eight minutes of the half were gone. Duke, on the other hand, made just one of its first five attempts from downtown, courtesy of junior guard Tyrese Proctor.
Taking charity
Kentucky’s efforts to block shots by the Blue Devils drew the Wildcats foul after foul, sending Flagg and Knueppel to the stripe. The former capitalized on all four of his foul shots while the latter missed only one, proving Duke’s knack for fundamentals even among the rookie class. Knueppel’s free throws granted the Blue Devils their lead back after they had trailed or tied Kentucky since the sixth minute. With 9:12 on the clock, the Wildcats put Duke in the bonus; by the period’s end, Kentucky had 10 fouls. The Blue Devils, on the other hand, played more cautiously, keeping their foes off the line and avoiding that critical seventh foul until 3:56 remaining in the half.
Player of the half: Cooper Flagg
Flagg came out of the game for the last seven minutes of the half — with two fouls — and still made the biggest contributions to Duke’s side of the stat sheet. In 12 minutes the freshman tallied as many points, shooting perfectly from the stripe and 4-for-5 inside the arc. One of them was a made-for-show alley-oop dunk. Flagg also caught four defensive rebounds, a vital thing given that the Blue Devils and Wildcats were fighting neck-and-neck for boards, with Duke finishing the half at 21 and Kentucky at 20.
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Sophie Levenson is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.