The Blue Devils were not very hospitable to the ACC’s new West Coast contingent.
No. 3 Duke cruised to a 106-70 victory over Stanford Saturday afternoon behind a spectacular shooting performance. It was the highest scoring output of the season for the home team, beating out the team's 100-point total against Army Nov. 8. Five Blue Devils scored in double digits to overpower the Cardinal, with Tyrese Proctor’s 23 points pacing the team in scoring.
“I thought it was just a great overall game by our guys. I thought the readiness was really good, I think the shots came from great sharing and great pace on offense,” head coach Jon Scheyer said.
The game started to slip away from the Cardinal (16-10, 8-7 in the ACC) with about 10 minutes remaining in the first half. In the midst of a 14-3 run by the Blue Devils, Stanford was unable to find any easy buckets on offense with Khaman Maluach waiting in the paint. Add in a strong rebounding stretch from Duke, and the lead ballooned to 15 with roughly eight minutes to go before halftime.
Things did not get any better from there, largely due to the efforts of Tyrese Proctor. The junior guard — who is in the middle of arguably the best stretch of his Duke career — repeatedly knifed through the Cardinal defense for layups and found himself open beyond the arc for open threes. The Sydney native finished the first half with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting.
Everything was clicking for the Blue Devils (22-3, 14-1) in the first half as they shot a blistering 58.1% from the field and 43.8% from three. Perhaps more impressively, Duke nearly went the entire first 20 minutes without turning the ball over until an errant Isaiah Evans pass with 3:20 remaining in the half. The final tally was 11 assists to one turnover when both teams headed into the locker room, with Duke leading 49-34 at the horn.
“I think it’s just Duke basketball. That's just the standards that we play to, just finding the open man, making the right pass, making the right read. It’s just what we're trying to do on every possession,” Cooper Flagg said.
The Blue Devils continued to attack the rack out of the break. Sion James drew an and-one on his first drive, and Kon Knueppel knocked down a fadeaway to keep pace with Stanford’s offense. The ensuing two buckets were much more to the liking of the Cameron Crazies though; Flagg and Maluach both threw down home dunks to excite the home crowd.
The remainder of the half was largely the same story as most of Duke’s season. The Blue Devils continued to stifle Stanford defensively, and they had more than enough firepower to succeed on the other end. The 3-point onslaught also kept going strong, as Maliq Brown even joined in on the fun with his second made triple of the season. Back-to-back treys from Flagg and Proctor pushed the lead to 88-59 with roughly six minutes left, giving Duke its largest lead of the day.
Much was made of the matchup against likely all-conference selection Maxime Raynaud heading into Saturday, as the star center figured to be a tough matchup for freshman big Khaman Maluach. However, the youngster won the first matchup of the day, forcing a turnover on Stanford’s first possession and slamming down a lob on the other end of the floor.
Raynaud had some answers of his own in the early going. The Paris native knocked down two triples before the first media timeout despite entering the contest having made just one of his last 15 attempts from downtown. Inside the arc though, the senior was troubled by Duke’s size and length. Maluach, Brown and Mason Gillis took turns making life difficult for the big man, as he went 0-for-5 on 2-point attempts to begin.
By the time the final buzzer had sounded, Raynaud had racked up 19 points and seven rebounds. Despite the lofty totals, Duke forced him into several tough shots. The center put up 21 attempts — nine from three — from the field in the losing effort.
“Raynaud is a tough cover. They do some really good things for him, but the fact that he scored 19 on 21 shots, that's really what you want,” head coach Jon Scheyer said.
The Maluach-Brown combo worked in perfect tandem all afternoon. Both bigs leaned on their respective skill sets to defend Raynaud and help Duke take a commanding lead. Maluach added several thunderous dunks inside and Brown multiple dimes to Proctor as head coach Jon Scheyer used them interchangeably.
Maluach in particular had a large impact on the contest. The Rumbek, South Sudan, native found himself in excellent position down low, and his teammates kept feeding him for open dunks. He also had his way on the offensive glass; four of Maluach’s six boards were offensive.
Duke’s high-intensity play on both ends of the floor seemed to bother the visitors throughout the first period. Head coach Kyle Smith was forced to burn two timeouts in the first eight minutes. The hustle from the Blue Devils was also consistently evident, with several players forcing deflections and diving on the floor for loose balls.
Saturday marked the return of former Blue Devil Jaylen Blakes to Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Somerset, N.J., native was welcomed by raucous applause from the home crowd during player introductions, signaling the lack of any hard feelings from the Duke faithful. The homecoming on the court was not as pleasant — Blakes finished with two points after shooting 1-for-10 from the field.
Duke will travel to Virginia Monday to take on the Cavaliers at 8 p.m.
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