I’m not sure how I want to approach this game where Duke outlasted a tough and disciplined Davidson team 67-50. On the one hand Duke is 13-0 and has played a heck of a tough non-conference schedule. On the other hand Duke looked rather ordinary in the win. Not saying that Davidson should have been an easy win but Duke did not do the basics to make this game much less of a dog fight. Defensively in the first half Duke wasn’t bad, but rebounding was atrocious. As strong as Duke would play on the defensive end they did not secure the rebounds and that led to 14 second chance points in the first half alone for Davidson, that coupled with 9 first half turnovers hampered Dukes ability to maintain a lead thus the Wildcats were able to tie the game at the half.
Duke had only 1 assisted basket in the first half as Davidson executed their defensive scheme to near perfection, Duke was much better in the second half, Coach K’s adjustments allowed Duke 7 more assists in the second half. In addition, the Devils only turned the ball over 3 times in the second half. Duke lost the rebounding battle in the first half by 7 (15-22). In the second half Duke won the rebounding battle 18 to 12.
The physical nature of the game and the double team stifled Dukes Mason Plumlee who ended the game with 6 turnovers and only managed 10 points and 7 rebounds. Luckily for Duke Ryan Kelly had one of his best games of the year totaling 18 points and 7 rebounds, Kelly was 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and kept Duke up with clutch shooting. Everyone expected Seth Curry to have a big game, unfortunately Curry pressed and never really caught the flow of the game. Curry did hit some big shots for Duke but went only 3 for 11 in the game and 0 for 2 from the 3 point line. Duke did get scoring from the back-court by Quinn Cook and Tyler Thornton who scored 15 and 10 respectively. Thornton hit 2 big 3 pointers for Duke and Cook drove the ball to the hold and also hit on mid-range jumpers when Dukes offense stagnated.
After a torrid start to his freshman campaign, Rasheed Sulaimon has had 2 frustrating games on the offensive end. Sulaimon went 1 for 6 against Davidson and 2 for 8 against Santa Clara but the freshmen is not allowing his poor shooting performances to hamper other aspects of his game, Rasheed had 7 rebounds from the guard spot against Davidson and 2 steals against Santa Clara.
It took a 12-0 run in the opening 6 minutes of the second half for Duke to pull away from Davidson and give Duke some room to breathe and operate. Sans a couple of small runs Duke was never threatened in the second half.
Duke will have to shore up its rebounding difficulties going forward in order to maintain its winning ways. The Devils will look to perform better against Wake Forest in their ACC opener on Saturday January 5th.
Official Basketball Box Score
Duke vs Davidson
01/02/13 7:00 PM at Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena
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VISITORS: Duke 13-0
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 4-7 0-0 2-3 0 7 7 4 10 2 6 3 2 33
34 Ryan Kelly.......... f 5-8 3-4 5-6 2 5 7 1 18 0 1 1 0 35
02 Quinn Cook.......... g 6-9 0-1 3-3 0 3 3 3 15 2 1 0 2 34
14 Rasheed Sulaimon.... g 1-6 0-1 6-6 0 7 7 1 8 0 1 1 0 31
30 Seth Curry.......... g 3-11 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 4 6 3 1 0 1 31
03 Tyler Thornton...... 2-5 2-3 4-4 0 2 2 0 10 1 0 0 0 23
12 Alex Murphy......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
15 Josh Hairston....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 4 0 0 1 0 0 9
21 Amile Jefferson..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 3
TEAM................ 3 3
Totals.............. 21-46 5-11 20-22 6 27 33 17 67 8 12 5 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-22 40.9% 2nd Half: 12-24 50.0% Game: 45.7% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-6 33.3% 2nd Half: 3-5 60.0% Game: 45.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 9-10 90.0% 2nd Half: 11-12 91.7% Game: 90.9% 0
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HOME TEAM: Davidson 7-6
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
15 Jake Cohen.......... f 5-10 1-3 8-8 3 5 8 4 19 0 3 1 0 19
24 De'Mon Brooks....... f 4-13 0-1 0-0 4 8 12 2 8 2 2 2 1 30
05 JP Kuhlman.......... g 0-3 0-1 2-2 0 1 1 1 2 4 2 0 1 34
12 Nik Cochran......... g 1-3 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 3 2 2 3 0 1 32
35 Chris Czerapowicz... g 2-8 1-5 0-0 0 2 2 1 5 0 0 0 0 23
04 Tyler Kalinoski..... 3-6 2-5 1-2 0 3 3 1 9 1 1 0 0 26
20 Jordan Barham....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
23 Tom Droney.......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 2 2 4 3 0 0 1 0 0 14
40 Clint Mann.......... 2-12 0-1 1-1 3 0 3 4 5 0 2 3 0 21
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 17-56 4-19 12-13 13 21 34 19 50 9 14 6 3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-34 32.4% 2nd Half: 6-22 27.3% Game: 30.4% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-10 20.0% 2nd Half: 2-9 22.2% Game: 21.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-5 100 % 2nd Half: 7-8 87.5% Game: 92.3% 0
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Officials: Gary Maxwell, Raymond Natili, Frank Raposo
Technical fouls: Duke-None. Davidson-None.
Attendance: 13607
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Duke.......................... 29 38 - 67
Davidson...................... 29 21 - 50
Points in the paint-DU 24,DAV 22. Points off turnovers-DU 9,DAV 9.
2nd chance points-DU 4,DAV 16. Fast break points-DU 0,DAV 2.
Bench points-DU 10,DAV 14. Score tied-5 times. Lead changed-6 times.
Last FG-DU 2nd-01:07, DAV 2nd-02:26.
Largest lead-DU by 19 2nd-00:48, DAV by 3 1st-12:07.
