Everyone was curious to see how Duke would respond on the court to a hard fought and emotional victory against Kentucky. One could call the game against Florida Gulf Coast a trap game. This team beat Miami by double figures and came into Cameron with confidence, and played that way for most of the first half. Duke began to pull away about 4 minutes left in the first half with a heavy dose of Mason Plumlee and Rasheed Sulaimon. It didn’t help the efforts of the Eagles that they turned the ball over 25 times to Dukes 18 (neither team took good care of the ball). Also in Duke favor was free throw shooting. It’s not often in their careers that Mason Plumlee shoots a better free throw percentage than Ryan Kelly so mark it on the calendar. Mason shot 10-11 from the line, yes folks 10 of 11. Kelly was 3 of 5. As a team Duke was 19 of 23 and the Eagles were 10 of 11. What eventually propelled the Devils was just having more ways and options to score the ball. With Mason scoring a career high 28, the floodgates opened for others. Rasheed Sulaimon shook off a shaky start to score 19 in the game, he also had 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Ryan Kelly was selectively aggressive hitting on 14 points on 5 of 10 shooting. Kelly also had 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
A good sign for Duke faithful was seeing Alex Murphy get time in the second half. Murph got 6 minutes in the game and missed 2 shots but pulled down 2 rebounds.
Clearly Duke has a ways to go on offense and defense, Duke was hurt on several plays where guards penetrated past Duke guards. Duke also needs to rebound the ball better. While they did win the rebounding battle by 1, Duke should have easily out rebounded the undersized Eagles. The other area that Duke will need to improve on is PG play when Quinn Cook is out of the game. Tyler Thornton is a different animal than Quinn Cook, and according to every pundit for Duke to be successful Quinn Cook has to have a good year, in my opinion, how Duke plays when Quinn Cook needs a rest or for whatever reason cannot play is just as important. The offense needs to maintain the same rhythm when Tyler Thornton is running the show. And while Thornton did have 4 assist, the offense seemed to stagnate without the heady Cook in the game. It is also important for Thornton to knock down the open shots when the ball is kicked to him, defenses will cheat off of Thornton if he doesn’t knock down shots at a higher clip.
Next up for the Devils is Minnesota on Thursday in the Bahamas.
Official Basketball Box Score
Florida Gulf Coast vs Duke
11-18-12 8:00 pm at Durham, N.C. (Cameron Indoor Stadium)
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VISITORS: Florida Gulf Coast 2-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
12 Eric McKnight....... f 2-6 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 5 4 0 1 1 1 14
20 Chase Fieler........ f 1-3 1-3 0-0 1 2 3 5 3 1 3 0 0 22
00 Brett Comer......... g 1-6 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 2 2 3 5 0 1 23
02 Bernard Thompson.... g 9-13 6-8 0-0 2 4 6 4 24 1 4 0 5 30
25 Sherwood Brown...... g 4-13 1-4 5-5 3 3 6 3 14 3 3 1 0 36
05 Christophe Varidel.. 2-3 1-2 2-2 0 0 0 2 7 0 5 0 0 17
15 Filip Cvjeticanin... 2-6 2-5 0-0 2 2 4 0 6 0 0 0 0 21
23 Eddie Murray........ 2-6 0-2 1-2 2 4 6 3 5 1 3 1 0 24
24 Marcus Blake........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
35 DaJuan Graf......... 0-1 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 1 12
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 23-57 11-25 10-11 13 20 33 24 67 11 25 3 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-30 40.0% 2nd Half: 11-27 40.7% Game: 40.4% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-13 46.2% 2nd Half: 5-12 41.7% Game: 44.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 10-11 90.9% Game: 90.9% 1,1
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HOME TEAM: Duke 3-0
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 Mason Plumlee....... f 9-11 0-0 10-11 5 4 9 0 28 1 3 2 0 35
34 Ryan Kelly.......... f 5-10 1-5 3-5 5 4 9 2 14 3 1 0 2 25
02 Quinn Cook.......... g 3-8 2-4 0-0 1 3 4 2 8 9 5 0 1 29
14 Rasheed Sulaimon.... g 5-12 3-8 6-6 0 3 3 2 19 2 3 0 1 33
30 Seth Curry.......... g 4-10 2-8 0-0 0 1 1 3 10 0 1 0 1 24
03 Tyler Thornton...... 1-5 1-5 0-0 0 1 1 0 3 4 3 0 2 24
12 Alex Murphy......... 0-2 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 6
15 Josh Hairston....... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 11
21 Amile Jefferson..... 2-4 0-0 0-1 1 1 2 2 4 0 1 2 2 13
TEAM................ 3 1 4
Totals.............. 30-63 9-31 19-23 16 21 37 14 88 19 18 4 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 16-34 47.1% 2nd Half: 14-29 48.3% Game: 47.6% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 7-20 35.0% 2nd Half: 2-11 18.2% Game: 29.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 13-14 92.9% 2nd Half: 6-9 66.7% Game: 82.6% 0
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