The Duke Blue Devils won by 20 against a scrappy Temple Owl teams but it won ugly. Duke did not shoot the ball well against the owls, shooting 39% for the game and 30.4% from 3 point range. Duke would have to find other ways to put away the Owls and defensively the Devils stepped up to the tune of forcing 17 turnovers. Duke would turn those turnovers
into 22 points. Duke would also outbound Temple 43-40 but Temple held the advantage in second change points 17-5. Watching the game it seemed as if Duke turned the ball over a lot but looking back at the stats the Devils only turned it over 9 times which temple would turn into 11 points.
Duke got it’s points from the usual suspects with Quinn Cook leading the way with 17 points, Cook also pulled down 5 rebounds and shot 50% from the field. Also shooting 50% from the field was Justise Winslow who scored 15 points and pulled down 4 rebounds. Winslow may have been Dukes best defender and when points were hard to come by Winslow would force the issue by either slashing to the basket or taking the ball coast to coast putting pressure on the Temple defense. Duke freshmen Jahlil Okafor struggled in the first half going 3 or 13 but was much more effective in the 2nd half going 4-7 ending his day with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Tyus Jones was efficient running the offense with 7 assists to only one turnover. Jones excelled in creating ways to get Okafor the ball as Temple did a really good job of bringing the double team on the catch. Tyus exploited his ability to draw defenses in on the drive to create space for Okafor to operate in the post.
Okafor had his worst shooting night going 7-20 and struggled against the Temple interior, and Coach Capel mentioned at the half that the freshman would have to get angry. It will be an interesting point to watch to see if Jahlil will increase his aggressiveness as he gets accustomed to defenses on the college level.
This game, as ugly as it was, was a very good test for Duke. The physicality that Temple brought to the game was a rude awakening for Dukes younger players but a lesson best learned sooner rather than later.
