After 10 days off from games Duke hosted Lipscomb, while a tournament team last season the Bisons had a ton of turnover, something not unfamiliar to the Blue Devils. The Bisons filled those holes through the transfer portal as one does and despite dropping some games early, they’ve been on a 5 game winning streak entering Tuesday night in Cameron. Both teams entered confident, and for the first few minutes it looked like Duke would run over the hapless Bisons. No such luck, Duke’s early 10-0 run was bested by the Bisons, who forced tempo and got nice and cozy inside Cameron. It must have felt like Christmas for the Bisons, who were gifted 16 first half turnovers and spotted 21 points off of those Duke turnovers. For the Blue Devils, they spent the entire half not being able to get out of their own way. The frustrating part for Duke fans watching was that it wasn’t some stout, amazing defensive effort that thwarted the Blue Devils in the first half, it was a myriad of boneheaded passes and mishandling the ball. The Bisons took full advantage, building a 10 point first half 26-16, with another 10-point burst halfway through the first stanza. Duke scored eight of the next 10 points, narrowing the margin to two possessions, 28-24, highlighted by a dunk from Cameron Boozer on the fast break.
A pair of three-pointers from Darren Harris helped the Blue Devils pull within a point, 42-41, with just over two minutes before halftime. Duke surged at the end of the frame, scoring the final seven points, including a tip-in bucket at the buzzer by Boozer to give Duke a 3-point halftime lead.
The second half began with a pair of Duke turnovers and consecutive layups by the visitors to start the second half led to an early Duke timeout, the Blue Devils reeled off eight points over the next two minutes, punctuated by a one-hand slam from Isaiah Evans off a steal. Duke, from there, never looked back and seemed to gain their footing to cruise to a 24 point win. Cameron Boozer, even with what was his most inefficient and worst floor game of the season with 6 turnovers, still managed to score 26 points and pull down 13 rebounds. Isaiah Evans also had a horrendous floor game with 4 giveaways but ends what felt like a mini shooting slump, hitting 4 of his 7 3-pointers in the game, scoring 16 points and dishing 3 assists. Sophomore Darren Harris, whose first half 3’s kept the Blue Devils within striking distance, scored 11 points, hitting 2-5 from beyond the arc and dishing 2 assists. Maliq Brown added 11 points, hitting on 5 of his 6 shots and dishing 2 assists, while Patrick Ngongba added his first double-double as a Blue devil with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go with his 2 blocks and 2 steals.
It’s a tale as old as time for Duke teams, come out looking fairly bad against a lesser team after exam break. As fans, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment even with a win – I am certainly guilty of it. It’s hard to watch a team you’ve seen play 10 games and in the 11th, they look like they’ve just met for the first time. I can only imagine what it’s like for a coach – even with the expectation that you won’t be your best after a break, it has to be in a lot of ways maddening.
The Blue Devils passed the test, it’s hard not have a twinge of concern as Scheyer mentioned in his post game presser, but nothing to overtly panic about. Criticism is always fair for a poor performance. Were there mitigating factors? Of course, but any team, or player or coach worth their salt wants to be held to a standard regardless of any extra factors or circumstances. And, was it a poor performance? Yes, the first half was atrocious, but credit to the players and the staff for regrouping and putting a team away. Sometimes going through it, and figuring it out is part of development. Another achievement unlocked, and hopefully another lesson learned.