After a 10 day break which included a holiday some rust was to be expected from the Blue Devils and toward the end of the first half Duke defensively showed that rust. The Blue Devils pushed out to a 17 point lead but the Royals were able to trade baskets with the Blue Devils eventually going into the half down just 13. Jared McCain paced the Blue Devils in the first half going for 17 on 7-10 shooting and 3-6 from 3. McCain would end the game with a career high 24 points.
Whatever Jon Scheyer said to the Blue Devils at the half translated well as the Blue Devils were shot out of a cannon in the second half. The Blue Devils used a 20-10 run to push the lead to 23, then a 29 to 16 run to push the game completely out of reach for the Royals.
The Blue Devils used a solid defensive effort to shut a Queens team that likes to get up 3-pointers, in fact they shot 42 in their loss to Clemson. Duke held the Royals to just 7 makes on 22 attempts. Duke was also able to turn the Royals over 17 times leading to 33 Duke points. Duke finished the game with 11 steals. Kyle Filipowski anchored Duke’s defense and came up big in the paint with 5 blocked shots.
Duke conversely only turned the ball over 9 times for the game but dished 24 assists, 17 coming in the second half on 21 makes. Duke boasted 4 players with 3 or more assists. The Blue Devils shot 58% from the field while holding the Royals to 42.4%
While McCain led Duke in scoring he was by no means the only hot hand in Blue. Kyle Filippwskli, in addition to his stellar defensive effort, also scored 19 points on 8-10 shooting, hitting half of his 3 point attempts (1-2). Caleb Foster didn’t shoot the ball well from the field but did end up with 13 points for the Blue Devils adding 3 assists. Mark Mitchell added 8 rebounds and 10 points in 24 minutes, the sophomore forward also had 2 steals.
The Blue Devils coasted to a 106-69 win against the Royals in their last game before getting back into ACC play January 2nd at home versus Syracuse.
