No. 2 Duke men’s basketball returns home for a Saturday night clash with Florida State. After 20 minutes of play, the Blue Devils lead 47-30:
Flagg sidelined
With 11:27 to play in the first half, freshman phenom Cooper Flagg collided with Florida State’s Jerry Deng. Flagg was sent to the ground, clutching his eye. He was slow to get up, and was helped to the bench before eventually going back to the locker room. Before his exit, Flagg had four points, three rebounds and two assists in just seven minutes.
With so many key rotation players missing, Duke’s bench got meaningful minutes. Freshman Darren Harris entered the game just a few minutes after Flagg’s exit. He didn’t take long to score, cutting for a layup through contact less than a minute later, though he did miss the and-one free throw. Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba II also saw the court early, and Mason Gillis hit two 3-pointers and a pair of free throws to pace the team with nine points, alongside Kon Knueppel and Isaiah Evans.
Slim’s a starter
In the wake of Tyrese Proctor’s knee injury during Duke’s win at Miami, Evans was tapped to fill his starting role. Evans’ breakout game against Auburn was not an isolated event. The Fayetteville, N.C., native has put together three straight 16-plus-point performances, going 13-for-19 from outside the arc in that stretch. He had a rough opening to his first collegiate start. Evans took the first shot of the game, a three that spun around the rim and out. He didn’t score until just under the eight-minute mark on a kick-out from Knueppel, Evans’ first make after five misses.
After that, he was golden. He showed off his improved defensive skills with two boards and a steal. He knocked down another three and drove for a layup, ending the half with nine points in 16 minutes.
Home stretch
The Blue Devils are coming off a dominant three-game road trip — the 43-point demolition of Illinois was sandwiched by clean wins at Virginia and Miami. In each of those three wins, Duke’s offense was on full display, and it averaged 48 first-half points. That was not the case in the opening of the Blue Devils’ return to Cameron Indoor Stadium. They were missing shots left and right, starting 7-for-21 from the floor. Duke did get back into its offensive groove, though it still ended the frame shooting 39.0% from the floor.
It wasn’t clean from either side. Florida State’s first points came on a fast break. Flagg had snagged Jamir Watkins’ miss and passed it ahead to Knueppel for a transition 3-pointer, but Daquan Davis got in the way for a block. Flagg could not get back fast enough to disrupt Watkins, who powered through for a quick dunk. The Blue Devils were able to turn the tables back on their opponents, as Flagg drove through for a layup. The half continued to be messy, with scrambles for loose balls and tipped boards galore.
Cleaning up
Duke’s length and rebounding prowess is not new — in fact, it’s a bit of a broken record at this point. However, through the opening minutes, the Seminoles were beating the Blue Devils on the glass. For a stretch in the middle of the period, nearly every missed shot on both ends seemed to result in numerous tips as the ball bounced around and eventually ended up in the hands of the visitors. The home team did get back to its dominant ways, with Ngongba helping out with a board on each end.
Duke’s defense remained lights-out even without Proctor and Maliq Brown, holding Florida State to just 37.5% from the floor, a stark difference from its 46% average. The Blue Devils were able to capitalize on the Seminoles’ six first-half turnovers with 10 points. Most notably, Watkins, who averages 18.4 points per game, only had eight on 3-for-10 shooting.
Player of the half: Kon Knueppel
The freshman was Duke’s rock. With Proctor out, Evans cold to start and Flagg in the locker room, offensive firepower rested on the shoulders of the Milwaukee native. While he didn’t play a perfect half, he put up nine points, four rebounds and five assists. With just under eight minutes to play in the half, Ngongba picked off Watkins, and Knueppel moved the ball ahead, setting up the Blue Devils’ longest offensive possession yet which included two missed 3-pointers — one by Evans and one by Harris — and two offensive rebounds, the latter of which was grabbed by Knueppel. He kicked it back out to Evans for the third-chance triple, who drained it for his first points of the day. That brought the score to 27-14, and after a few sloppy possessions, Duke was back in control.
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Rachael Kaplan is a Trinity senior and a senior editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.