Duke took down a scrappy Grand Canyon team 96-61 but the game was not without some issues for this Duke team. Duke struggled to solve the Antelope offense, struggling with defensive positioning. Duke didn’t take its first double figure lead until a Grayson Allen jumper with 2:24 left in the second half. Duke coming off of a game just yesterday had a lack of intensity on both ends of the floor until the waning moments of the half. Duke ended the half with a 46 – 29 lead.
Duke extended it’s intensity into the second half with a 27 to 6 run on their way to a 96-61 victory. Duke was paced by junior guard Grayson Allen who scored 25 points, Allen added 4 assists, 3 steals and 10 rebounds. Duke also got 21 from freshman guard Frank Jackson who added 2 assists. Duke held the pre-season WAC player of the year to 5 total points but surrendered 18 to Shaquille Carr who went 8-17 and dished 8 assists for Grand Canyon.
The Good:
Last time out Duke had 13 assists as a team, this game they shared the ball much better dishing 20 assists for the game. Duke also turned the Antelopes over 20 times and scored 22 points off of those turnovers. Duke also scored 28 points off if its bench, most of that coming off of Frank Jackson’s 21.
The Bad:
This Duke team left far too many points at the line not making it to 70% from the charity stripe. While Duke did win the rebounding battle an edge of more than 8 (39-31) was expected. Duke will have to a better job of boxing out and garnering an edge on on the board going forward. Dukes top rebounder was guard Grayson Allen with 10, more than Amile Jefferson and Chase Jeter combined (9).
Duke shot well overall but still under 40% (37.9%) from 3 point range, while they did hit some big shots there were some ill-advised shots. Matt Jones and Grayson Allen went 5-20 combined.
Defensively Duke has spurts where the intensity was off the chain and times where they looked confused, out of position and easily beaten off the dribble.
Next up for Duke Kansas Jayhawks:
In his post game comments Coach K iterated that Duke would be without his injured freshman trio for the entirety of next week which includes the marquee match-up with Kansas.
