With winter break coming to a close, No. 4 Duke men’s basketball takes on Pittsburgh at home Tuesday evening. In a battle of ACC heavyweights, the Blue Devils have a 34-24 lead after 20 minutes:
Scheyer is back
Head coach Jon Scheyer missed the Blue Devils’ Jan. 4 road contest against SMU due to illness, just his third absence as a member of Duke’s staff. Facing another Duke basketball alum in Pittsburgh coach Jeff Capel, Scheyer has looked no worse for the wear so far. The Blue Devils’ aggression on offense was apparent early on thanks to back-to-back threes from guards Tyrese Proctor and Sion James, which gave the home team an early 8-2 lead. On the defensive end, center Khaman Maluach spread across the floor, shadowing guard Ishmael Leggett and forward Cameron Corhen on back-to-back layup misses. No matter the margin of the game, Duke fans are surely glad to see Scheyer back in action.
No love lost
As Pittsburgh jogged onto the court for warmups, the Cameron Crazies booed and hexed with an intense fervor, even by their chaotic standards. The image of the Panthers achieving a monumental upset at Cameron Indoor last January, surely burned into the minds of the Duke faithful, fueled a terse environment for the away crowd for the first 20 minutes. Pittsburgh guard Jaland Lowe, who scored 11 points in the final eight minutes of that game, has returned to Cameron Indoor with the same upset mentality. Early in the half, Lowe battled Proctor for a possession, ultimately resulting in a steal from the Panthers. While he has shot a quiet 1-of-5 from the floor so far, Lowe will hope to seal the deal in the last 20 for the away team.
Cold spell
Duke and Pittsburgh are two of the best offensive teams in the country, but any first-time viewers likely wouldn’t have gotten that impression from either team early in the first half. The Blue Devils’ offense started off with a 3-of-3 mark from the field in the first 2:08, but the home team cooled off fast, missing all but one of its next 13 shots. This allowed Pittsburgh to gain its first lead of the game, 12-11, midway through the half. Meanwhile, the Panthers didn’t fare much better, shooting 29.6% in the half.
Early foul trouble
History repeated itself from Duke’s Dec. 31 victory against Virginia Tech, as just like in that game, freshman forward Cooper Flagg garnered early fouls that forced him to the bench for a prolonged stretch of the first half. The Newport, Maine, native played 13 of the first 20 minutes, picking up his pair of fouls in a span of 38 seconds. In the half’s final two minutes, Maluach also landed in foul trouble, picking up two that forced him to sit into the break. For the away team, starting forward Guillermo Diaz Graham also picked up two fouls in quick order, much to the delight of the Cameron Crazies.
Player of the half: Kon Knueppel
Through much of the first half, freshman wing Kon Knueppel was deep in a shooting slump with an 0-for-4 clip from the field. As opposing teams have quickly learned throughout this season, though, he is extremely difficult to contain. With 6:43 to go, graduate Mason Gillis found an open Knueppel on the wing, and the Milwaukee native cashed it in for his first bucket of the night. Less than a minute later, back-to-back possessions where Proctor found Knueppel alone on the arc resulted in two more 3-pointers, and a late pair of free throws brought his total to 11 at the half’s end. In addition to his shooting, Knueppel provided a steady presence on defense, closing out against the Panthers’ Damian Dunn late in the period to force a missed jumper. Tuesday’s game marks Knueppel’s seventh this season with at least three treys, and he will hope to notch even more in a pivotal second half.
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