It’s hard not to feel for Notre Dame, missing 3 players due to injury including senior Rex Pflueger and on the murderers row of UVA then Duke. The Irish had the right idea against a poor shooting Duke squad – zone them and make them take perimeter shots. Unfortunately for Mike Breys team, Duke was on. The Blue Devils dismantled the Irish to the tune of 83-61, shooting 52.6% from beyond the arc. The Devils also did it on the defensive end holding the Irish to to under 35% from the field. Duke also blocked 6 shots in the game, 4 coming from freshman Zion Williamson and 2 from junior Marques Bolden. Williamson led the Blue Devils in scoring with 26 points on 10-12 shooting. He also added 9 rebounds, 4 assists and a steal. Williamson reached the 20-point mark for the 13th time this season — second-most in the ACC behind teammate RJ Barrett (16).
The Blue Devils also got 17 points and 9 rebounds from freshman R.J Barrett and 13 points and 3 assists from Cam Reddish. Freshman Tre Jones in his second game back adde 5 assists to only 1 turnover and had 9 points and 2 steals.
The Irish were outgunned from the onset of the game with Duke jumping out to a 17-2 lead to start the game. The Blue Devils led for all but 32 seconds in the game. The Blue Devils move to 7 and 1 in ACC play, 18-2 overall. Next up is an out of conference game against St. Johns in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
