No. 4 Duke men’s basketball rides a nine-game winning streak into Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday as it takes on Notre Dame. After 20 minutes of play, the Blue Devils take a 44-36 lead into halftime:
Irish cold early
With Winter Storm Cora sweeping through Durham Friday night, inches of snow and ice covered the ground outside Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Fighting Irish continued this trend with an icy start of their own, missing their first five attempts from the field. On the contrary, the Blue Devils picked up right where they left off against Pittsburgh. An 11-0 run headlined by three 3-pointers from Tyrese Proctor, Cooper Flagg and Sion James broke the game open in just under four minutes. In addition, the roar and sustained energy from the Cameron Crazies, recently embarking on the upcoming tenting season and still high from a character-defining Flagg performance earlier in the week, contributed to early struggles from the Fighting Irish, who would score their first field goal after five minutes.
Taking advantage of turnovers
The Duke defense, the highest rated in college basketball according to KenPom, has been a difficult test for Micah Shrewsbury’s squad. Particularly, the Blue Devils have capitalized in transition for 14 points off only five Notre Dame turnovers. However, the Fighting Irish started to shoot better on their opportunities, shooting 48% from the field in the first half.
Maliq Brown injured
After exiting following an awkward landing at the 11:25 mark, Brown was replaced by Patrick Ngongba, the freshman from Manassas, Va. Scheyer has turned to Ngongba, as well as Mason Gillis to fill in the gap. Maliq Brown was ruled out for the rest of the game with a right knee injury. Ngongba made a field goal early in his playing time, and Gillis finished with three points and three rebounds, playing solid defense against the Fighting Irish.
Living from downtown
Both teams have taken over half of their attempts from deep. Notre Dame, this season shooting 36% from three, has prioritized its shot selection in order to contend with the fourth-ranked Blue Devils. With the height of the current Duke squad, the Fighting Irish have found difficulty scoring in the paint, scoring their first non 3-point field goal at the 4:52 mark courtesy of Markus Burton. Despite Notre Dame shooting 66.7% from deep at 8-for-12, the Fighting Irish could not catch the Blue Devils, who posed a eight-point lead at half after shooting 44%.
Player of the half: Cooper Flagg
The freshman phenom started the game red-hot from deep, leading the Blue Devils with 3-for-5 3-pointers made. But beyond his impressive presence beyond the arc, Flagg paved the way once again with 15 first half points, two rebounds and five assists. It seems that Flagg has found more confidence in his 3-point shot, and expect him to continue being a key factor for the rest of the game.
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