DALLAS— No Jon Scheyer, no problem.
Though their head coach was not on the bench, it was business as usual for the Blue Devils as they kicked off the near year and earned a hard-fought 89-62 victory over SMU at Moody Coliseum.
Scheyer did not make the journey to the Lone Star State due to illness as the Blue Devils and the Mustangs faced off for the first time in nearly 40 years, leaving associate head coach and Duke basketball alum Chris Carrawell to step in.
“[Scheyer] was texting, calling, bothering us because he cared so much,” Carawell said. “And our players really came out today and played well on both ends from start to finish.”
With SMU down nine entering the second half, senior Matt Cross and Samet Yigitoglu both got off quick shots to pull the Mustangs back into the game. Just as it had in the first half, fouls on Duke’s part helped make that goal look like it might come true, but once again, Cooper Flagg pulled through to help his team build its lead.
After making a defensive rebound, Flagg went to work on the other end of the court, shooting a 3-point jumper to put the Blue Devils up 54-37, their largest lead of the game and forcing SMU to call another refocusing timeout.
A block by Yigitoglu led to a turnover for Duke that revitalized both the Mustangs and their fanbase. On the other end, Cross made a wide-open three to give SMU some offensive life. But try as it might, SMU could not pull within single digits of the Blue Devils for the rest of the second half.
“We didn’t settle,” Carawell said. “We didn’t turn the ball over. We got quality shots for the most part of the game.”
Duke utilized 3-pointers to continue to pad the score in the second half, leading to a 40.7% shooting percentage from beyond the arc for the Blue Devils as they put the game on ice and walked away with the win.
“As we’ve gotten more comfortable as a team, we’ve come together more,” Flagg said. “Our offense has definitely sharpened up a lot and that’s helped me as well.”
Junior Tyrese Proctor initially had a hot hand, making two 3-pointers in quick succession to give Duke an early 10-point lead, but the success gave way to a nearly four-minute scoring drought. That, combined with costly fouls and turnovers, allowed the Mustangs to build back up and stay in the game. SMU’s Boopie Miller, a Wake Forest transfer and familiar foe for the Blue Devils, led his team in scoring and made his defensive effort known throughout the game.
Still, despite the Mustangs cutting the deficit to 18-16, they never could quite catch Duke, mostly due to the efforts of Flagg. With the shots simply not falling for the rest of the team, Flagg took the offensive burden upon himself, scoring on three consecutive possessions to give the Blue Devils a little bit of breathing room.
“Cooper was able to put pressure on the defense,” Carawell said. “Anytime he’s in that mode attacking, it opens up a lot for us.”
Flagg’s efforts helped inspire the rest of his team and lit the offensive fire that Duke needed to combat SMU’s defense late in the first half. Still, the fouls the Blue Devils incurred early in the contest put the home squad in the bonus, keeping the score close. Yigitoglu proved to be a problem for the Blue Devils all afternoon as he parked himself in the paint where he could easily tip-in any opportune passes from his teammates. His presence included five of the Mustangs’ 13 offensive rebounds — double the six Duke had in the first half — giving his team ample opportunity for second-chance points.
“They sort of punched us in the mouth early in terms of getting boards,” Proctor said. “Once we adjusted that, we played the game in our favor.”
After Miller made a key defensive rebound and charged down the court to find his open teammate Yohan Traore for the jumper, the assembled SMU fans at Moody Coliseum rose to their feet. The lead was once again down to four, 32-28, but the Blue Devils quickly silenced the electric atmosphere. Mason Gillis made a timely 3-pointer, and then retrieved the rebound off of Miller’s missed shot on the other half of the court. He then came off a screen and drove to the basket for the layup, causing SMU’s head coach Andy Enfield to call a timeout and refocus his team.
The timeout seemed to shift the tide in the home side’s favor as Yigitoglu made two easy layups in the final two minutes of the first half. But Duke remained calm under the late first-half pressure the Mustangs applied, maintaining control of the game and walking into the locker room with a 41-32 lead, never to look back.
The Blue Devils return to Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday night to take on Pittsburgh as they continue their ACC slate.
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