If there was a time for a let down for Duke it would come against Temple at the Izod Center, a gritty team, a team that wouldn’t give up and would scrap against Duke until the final whistle. Duke shook off some early miscues and was never in danger against the 5 and 0 owls. Once the machine was in motion Duke never stopped, sans a few mini runs by the Owls Duke controlled the game winning 90 – 67. Mason Plumlee was solid for Duke, and while not scoring a load (16) against the Owls Mason did controlled the boards with 14 rebounds. If not for Plumlee missing some bunnies at the rim he would have easily scored over 20. It didn’t matter because Seth Curry got hot, the injured guard played 31 minutes and scored 23 points to lead all scorers. Seth was money from 3, from midrange and from wherever he wanted. Dukes offense was rolling in this game, the only Duke starter who didn’t score in double figures was Rasheed Sulaimon but he led the Devils in assists with 7 to go along with his 8 points.
Duke seemed to fire on all cylinders and built a big enough lead to allow Coach K to play his bench. Duke was able to get 15 off the bench with Amile Jefferson scoring 7 and Alex Murphy and Tyler Thornton scoring 7 and 3 respectively. Duke defensively was able to guard well on the perimeter and force the Temple guards out of their set offense, allowing just 35.9 percent shooting. Duke also continued to put the pressure on Temple offensively. Shooting 60% from 3, and nearly 50% for the game. The only facet of the game the Devils did not dominate was rebounding, Temple won it by 1. Duke will need more rebounding from its guards going forward.
The game was cleanly played in terms of turnovers with Duke only coughing it up 6 times to 10 for the Owls. Duke wins a game by 23 against a top 50 team, an unbeaten team, and one that is usually a defensive juggernaut. Duke was able to assert themselves and force tempo against the Owls and this bodes well going forward for Duke. This Temple win will look even better later on the season.
Duke was impressive on both ends of the floor and this isn’t a team at full strength. Duke is expecting the 3rd Plumlee (Marshall) to play in the next game in 11 days.
Official Basketball Box Score
Temple vs Duke
12/09/12 3:23 p.m. at E. Rutherford, N.J. - Izod Center
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VISITORS: Temple 6-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
1 Khalif Wyatt........ 3-15 0-4 0-0 1 0 1 1 6 3 1 0 0 26
11 T.J. Dileo.......... 3-4 1-1 0-0 1 2 3 0 7 1 1 0 0 19
15 Jimmy McDonnell..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
2 Will Cummings....... 3-7 1-2 0-0 0 0 0 2 7 1 1 0 0 18
21 Dalton Pepper....... 2-7 2-4 0-0 1 2 3 1 6 1 1 0 1 18
22 Jake O'Brien........ 3-7 1-4 1-1 1 0 1 3 8 0 0 0 0 13
25 Quenton Decosey..... 5-6 3-3 0-2 0 3 3 3 13 1 1 0 0 18
3 Anthony Lee......... 3-8 0-0 0-0 2 7 9 3 6 1 1 0 0 17
32 R. Hollis-Jefferson. 3-8 0-0 0-1 4 2 6 4 6 4 3 3 2 28
33 Scootie Randall..... 3-9 0-3 0-0 3 4 7 4 6 4 0 1 0 37
41 Devontae Watson..... 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 1
42 Daniel Dingle....... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
TEAM................ 2 2 4
Totals.............. 29-73 8-21 1-4 16 23 39 21 67 16 10 4 3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-39 35.9% 2nd Half: 15-34 44.1% Game: 39.7% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-11 36.4% 2nd Half: 4-10 40.0% Game: 38.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 1-4 25.0% Game: 25.0% 2,1
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HOME TEAM: Duke 9-0
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 5-14 0-0 6-11 5 9 14 2 16 1 2 0 0 33
34 Ryan Kelly.......... f 3-9 1-2 7-8 2 8 10 1 14 1 1 1 0 33
02 Quinn Cook.......... g 5-8 3-4 1-2 1 3 4 3 14 4 2 0 3 36
14 Rasheed Sulaimon.... g 2-6 1-2 3-3 0 2 2 1 8 7 0 0 1 30
30 Seth Curry.......... g 7-11 5-9 4-4 0 0 0 2 23 3 1 0 0 31
03 Tyler Thornton...... 1-2 1-2 0-0 1 2 3 3 3 2 0 0 2 18
12 Alex Murphy......... 2-4 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 5 0 0 0 0 5
15 Josh Hairston....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 5
21 Amile Jefferson..... 3-5 0-0 1-1 1 1 2 2 7 1 0 1 0 9
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 28-59 12-20 22-29 11 27 38 15 90 19 6 2 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-27 51.9% 2nd Half: 14-32 43.8% Game: 47.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-11 54.5% 2nd Half: 6-9 66.7% Game: 60.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 12-16 75.0% 2nd Half: 10-13 76.9% Game: 75.9% 3,2
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Officials: Karl Hess, Joe Lindsay, Bryan Kersey
Technical fouls: Temple-None. Duke-None.
Attendance: 12157
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Temple........................ 32 35 - 67
Duke.......................... 46 44 - 90
Points in the paint-TU 36,DU 28. Points off turnovers-TU 6,DU 15.
2nd chance points-TU 13,DU 12. Fast break points-TU 2,DU 8.
Bench points-TU 67,DU 15. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-1 time.
Last FG-TU 2nd-00:24, DU 2nd-00:33.
Largest lead-TU by 4 1st-18:32, DU by 26 2nd-00:33.
