I must admit that Virginia is a team that worried me coming into Saturday. While they aren’t a very potent offensive team, they do have a few weapons and defensively they have quite a few weapons as well. It didn’t matter to the Blue Devils who delivered an early knockout of the Hoos in the first half with smothering defense and some of the most potent offense UVA has faces this season.
Every Duke fans knows that an aggressive Kyle Filipowski is the best Kyle Filipowski and Flip answered to the tune of an aggressive 21 points on 9-14 shooting. Filipowski also pulled down 7 boards, had 3 steals and 2 assists – the sophomore forward filled up the stat sheet. Tyrese Proctor added 15 points and 5 assists and looked as fluid as he has all season – the sophomore Aussie also made 3 of his 4 shots from beyond the arc. The only other Duke player in Double figures was Mark Mitchell who added 10 points on 3-5 shooting, the Blue Devils made a concerted effort to get Mitchell involved early and it paid off. Mitchell also added 2 blocks.
The Blue Devils were impressive on the boards grabbing 42 rebounds to just 29 for the Cavaliers. Even though the Blue Devils didn’t shoot the ball well from 3 the threat of their shooting and cutting allowed them a plethora of opportunities in the paint where they outscored Virginia 44-18. Defensively the Blue Devils held the UVA to 30.9% from the field and 29.4% from 3.
