It’s good to be home.
After a two-game stint on the West Coast, the Blue Devils returned to the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium for the on-campus portion of the Vegas Showdown to take on Seattle. No. 11 Duke fared much better against the Redhawks than it did versus Kansas the game prior, taking a 70-48 victory to get back to its winning ways.
“There's a lot that we have to work on. I give Seattle a ton of credit. They have a good team and good players and we knew they’d make us work for everything,” head coach Jon Scheyer said. “But that doesn't change the fact there's a lot of things I would like us to do better.”
Following a sloppy start, the first real spark for the Blue Devils came just before the under-eight media timeout, as Tyrese Proctor buried a triple to put Duke up 20-14. On the other end of the floor, the Blue Devils swarmed the ball, forcing the Redhawks to put up a shot near the end of the shot clock that Maliq Brown sent flying into the stands to inject some life into the arena.
Seattle was simply unable to find the basket over the middle portion of the first half, as they went nearly six minutes without making a field goal, allowing Duke to expand the lead to 12 without playing spectacular offense. A DaSean Stevens triple ended the drought. This struggle for the Redhawks was exemplified by a missed dunk from Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, who attempted to punch one on Cooper Flagg that instead careened off the rim out to the perimeter.
“We think about getting stops. We know that we have one of the most talented teams in the country,” Sion James said. “We know that defense is what's going to take us to that next level, help us reach that height we want to reach. That's our focus going into every game, into every possession.”
Things reached a fever pitch with roughly two minutes to go before half. After a traveling call on Flagg, Duke forced an airball on the other end from John Christofilis. While the Cameron Crazies were still chanting at Christofilis, Isaiah Evans found the bottom of the net for a three, and James turned a steal into a Cooper Flagg fastbreak jam on the next possession that exhilarated the home crowd.
Despite a subpar shooting percentage, Flagg’s effort was still off the charts. Just before the end of the first half, the Newport, Maine, native soared in for an offensive rebound that he kicked out to the perimeter mid-air for
Proctor, who drilled a wide-open three that put Duke up 37-25 at the break.
The second half started just like the first, as sophomore guard Caleb Foster led the way once again. After a few missed triples to start the period by Duke, the Harrisburg, N.C., native took matters into his own hands, converting a nifty finish at the rim for the first points of the second half. On the ensuing possession, Foster also came up with a steal that Flagg fired right back to the guard for a fastbreak layup, forcing the Redhawks into an early timeout trailing 41-25.
Flagg nearly added another highlight play to his resume as he whipped a no-look pass to Foster, but his 3-point attempt was no good. However, Khaman Maluach was able to gather the miss and draw a foul from an undersized defender, converting on a dunk just after. One Proctor trey later, and Duke had its biggest lead of the night at 46-25 as the Redhawks failed to score between the start of the half and the first media timeout. This drought continued until the 11:58 mark, as the Blue Devils refused to relent on the defensive end.
Evans made a highlight in his young Blue Devil career just before the second media timeout, faking out a defender and speeding down the lane for a sweet one-hand flush that had Duke doubling up its opponent with 50 points. The Fayetteville, N.C., product followed that up with a catch-and-shoot three a few possessions later, and he finished with nine points off the bench.
“Plays like that really raise the level for the crowd. So it was just amazing making that play for myself,” Evans said of the dunk.
By the time the penultimate media stoppage rolled around, the game was practically out of reach due to a few tough makes from the Blue Devils. But most importantly, Seattle made just one of its first 15 shots of the half as its offense was completely overwhelmed, resulting in a 61-34 score with 7:41 to go.
“The first eight minutes of the second half, that was to me what we have to do. I thought we came out with great energy, and really guarded the ball. We had five guys defend the ball, and that was the energy I liked,” Scheyer said.
In the early going, there was no shortage of good looks on the perimeter for the Blue Devils, but the shots were not falling. The first five attempts for the home team all came from beyond the arc, with Foster knocking down one to open the scoring before three straight misses resulted in an early lead for the Redhawks.
“Coach Scheyer came into the locker room at half, and he said we were kind of settling a little bit too much and we need to start fighting for the rim a little bit better,” Flagg said. “To a point we have a good shooting team where we want to take a lot of threes, but we still gotta fight for the rim, get fouled and get downhill.”
With just a four-point lead at the first media timeout, Scheyer elected to make a massive substitution, pulling out three starters. Despite a significant size advantage on the interior, Duke was unable to successfully get the ball inside for buckets.
Even though the offense was lacking behind, the Blue Devils had their typical active hands on defense, as they had three steals at the under-12 timeout and had multiple deflections to boot, mostly off the hands of Brown. Every basket was a grind for the visitors, as Duke’s stout defense only allowed three assists in the first half. However, the Redhawks refused to back down, still only trailing by one after eight minutes of play as both teams struggled to hold onto the ball and get up clean looks.
While the offense worked to get revved up, freshman Kon Knueppel bounced back from a slow night in Las Vegas, scoring eight of the team’s first 15 points behind two corner threes, one of which came off the back of a nice cross-court dime from Foster.
Up next, Duke has a monster matchup looming, as No. 4 Auburn comes to town for the second-ever iteration of the ACC/SEC Challenge Wednesday night.
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