Miami started the game on their home floor against the Blue Devils with verve and toughness and for a while were able to trade buckets with the Mike Krzyzewski coached team. Aided by 9 Duke first half turnovers the Canes kept it close until a Duke first half run capped off by a Matthew Hurt 3 pointer at the first half buzzer pushed the Due lead to 14. The offensive load in the first half was carried by freshmen Vernon Carey Jr. and Cassius Stanley. Carey, who's family attended the game, grew up an hour away from Coral Gables and had a monster half with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Cassius Stanley also had a monster game and paced the Blue Devil offense in the first half with 16 points, 2 assists and 2 -2 from beyond the arc. Stanley had been struggling recently having not had a double figure scoring game since scoring 15 in the loss to Stephen F. Austin.
The second half saw the Blue Devils shore up the turnovers, extend their defense and feed the beast, the beast being Vernon Carey Jr. Carey added 12 more points in the second half to end the game with 24 total, 9 rebounds and 2 assists. Carey was uber efficient scoring his 24 on 11 of 14 shooting. Cassius Stanley ended the game tallying 20 points on 8-11 shooting scoring at will from inside, outside and several mid-range floating jumpers. Tre Jones led the Blue Devils in assists with 4 and just missed double figure scoring by 1, scoring 9 points on 4-7 shooting. The Blue Devils, as as a team, in the first half shot the ball effectively at 61.8% and followed it up with a 59.7% shooting performance in the second half.
The Blue Devils came into the game shooting 34.8% from 3-point range but against the Hurricanes shot 42.9% from range while holding Miami to only 16.7%. The Blue Devils also had a 23 to 8 edge in points off of turnovers and a 64 to 38 advantage in points in the paint. The Blue Devils flexed their might on the boards as well with a 41 to 24 advantage.
HEAD COACH MIKE KRZYZEWSKI
Opening Statement: “We played really well tonight. A big part of it is we knew how good Miami is. A veteran team—and I thought they were ready to play against us. We played really good defense. I think it wore them out a little bit and it gave us an advantage. Our guys just played really hard and they shared the ball. With 23 assists, it was kind of nice to see. But how hard we’re playing defensively, it’s something we’ve worked on since September, so they keep getting better at it. Jordan Goldwire was a key guy tonight. When Tre (Jones) got his second foul—I’ll play a guy with two fouls in the first half, but when I took him out, I’d thought I’d bring him back with about five minutes to go and Jordan was doing such a good job that we were able not to do that. Wendell’s (Moore) ball pressure was outstanding. Our guys played well. It’s tough to single out one of them when they all did a good job.”
On the team’s improving ability to share the ball: “We’re driving the ball. It’s not just Tre driving. In the last couple of games a couple of our best passes have come from Joey (Baker), who you would not think is a driver. Cassius (Stanley) is driving to score a little bit more which is great and Wendell when he’s getting in there he’s not losing the ball he’s also kicking. C-Well (assistant coach Chris Carrawell) has been working a lot on our guys making stronger drives and kicks, and it’s paying off.”
On Sam Waardenburg’s play and how the momentum swung Duke’s way: "He played really well. They’re good. I think they got worn out. We played very, very well. Not well, we played two ‘verys’ at least. We have more depth and when we went to the bench we didn’t drop, at times we ascended."
FRESHMAN CENTER VERNON CAREY, JR.
On what it meant to pick up a road win in a conference game: “It was special just to come out here and get our second ACC road win. I feel like it was great. We played great, I feel like, especially on the defensive end.”
On what was working for Duke offensively:
“Just our ball movement, really. They tried to compact in the zone, but I feel like our spacing was good and just our passing was really well, so it spaced out everything.”
On what it meant to have Cassius Winston playing well offensively: “Just a boost to our team, really. With his scoring ability and athleticism, it gives us a huge bump.”
FRESHMAN GUARD CASSIUS STANLEY
On what was working for Duke offensively: “Getting out early in transition. I think that was really big, especially early in the game [in the] first half. Tre [Jones] and J Gold (Jordan Goldwire) did a great job of getting the ball out on outlets and the wings, we did really well running the floor and the big did really well running the floor too.”
On what allowed him to be so effective offensively:
“Tre [Jones] got the ball out early and I just started running the floor. I told Tre ‘I’m going to run with you,’ because he likes to push it, so every time he pushes it, [I told him], ‘I’m going to run with you and just look for me.’ We did that and I think that’s how I got going early.”
On how the team has improved over the last couple of games offensively: “Coach is definitely stressing just to be more efficient with our drives, don’t get too deep and when we drive, obviously look to score but then look to kick and try to get better shots. I think we were getting good shots early on in the season, but I think we’re getting great shots right now.”
Team Notes
- Mike Krzyzewski is in his 40th season as Duke’s head coach, and his record is now 1,072-286 at Duke, and 1,144-345 overall in this, his 45th season overall.
- The game marked the 28th meeting between Duke and Miami, with the series now 21-7 favoring Duke, including 9-5 in road games in the series.
- Duke’s 50 points and .618 shooting percentage (21-of-34) in the first half were both season highs.
- Duke’s 23 assists were a season high – the previous high were 22 at Michigan State.
- Duke finished the game shooting .597 (23-of-58) from the field – its best percentage of the season and its best in an ACC road game since shooting .608 (31-of-51) at Florida State on February 2, 2013.
- Duke is now 990-223 when playing as a ranked team under Coach K, including 586-107 as a ranked top five team.
- Duke extended its streak of at least one made three-pointer to 1,073 games – the nation’s third-longest active streak.
- Duke out-rebounded Miami 41-24 and out-scored Miami in the paint, 64-38.
- Duke’s bench scored 25 points. For the season, the 25.8 points per game average from the bench is the team’s highest since 26.8 in 2007-08.
Player Notes
- All 11 Blue Devils that played in the game scored at least three points and all 11 had at least one rebound – the second consecutive game that has happened.
- Freshman Cassius Stanley scored 20 points, including 16 in the first half. It marked his second career 20-point game – he had 21 versus Georgetown.
- Freshman Vernon Carey Jr., scored a game-high 24 points with nine rebounds – his seventh 20-point game this season.
- Freshman Matthew Hurt scored 13 points and set career highs for both assists (four) and steals (three).
- Hurt is averaging 13.9 points over his last eight games – was averaging 8.6 points over the first six games.
Next Game
- Duke is at Georgia Tech on Wednesday, January 8 in Atlanta at 9 p.m. ET on ACC Network.