Duke sophomore Matthew Hurt has been named ACC Player of the Week and freshman DJ Steward picked up ACC Freshman of the Week honors after the pair led the Blue Devils to home victories over Boston College and Wake Forest last week.
Hurt shot a team-best .567 (17-of-30) from the field and .538 (7-of-13) from three-point range for the week. He posted his second double-double of the season in the win over BC on Wednesday night, recording 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. Seven of his 17 points came in the game’s final 5:15, which included a layup to pull Duke within one at 69-68, a layup that tied the game at 73-73 after a pair of his own offensive rebounds, and a clutch corner three-pointer with 1:30 left to give Duke a 78-75 lead.
The Wooden Award candidate followed that up by registering career highs in points (26), field goals (10) and steals (three) in Saturday’s win over Wake Forest. He finished 10-of-15 from the floor, 4-of-7 from beyond the arc and knocked down both of his free throw attempts while grabbing six boards.
This marks the first ACC Player of the Week honor in Hurt’s career at Duke. The forward from Rochester, Minn., currently leads the conference in scoring (19.6 points per game) and is fourth in rebounds (8.1) and field goal percentage (.535).
Steward earned his second ACC Freshman of the Week nod in the last four weeks after averaging 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in the wins over BC and Wake. The 6-2 guard from Chicago, Ill., also led the Blue Devils with four blocked shots in the two games. He made several key plays over a 23-5 Duke run in the BC win that turned a 41-25 deficit with 2:15 left in the first half to a 48-46 lead with 17:35 to play in the second. Steward scored seven points, including a three before the buzzer that cut BC’s lead to just eight and a layup that gave Duke its first lead since 2-0. He also had three rebounds, a block, an assist and a steal in that run. He finished the night with 14 points, eight boards, two blocks and three steals.
Steward came back with 21 points, six rebounds and two more blocks in a career-high 39 minutes against Wake. He shot 8-of-15 from the field and converted 4-of-6 free throws while committing just one turnover. For the week, he went 13-of-30 from the field (.433) and 7-of-10 (.700) from the free throw line.
With its third recognition of the season, Duke has now had an ACC Freshman of the Week in 63 of a possible 125 weeks over the last seven-plus seasons. Eighteen different Blue Devils have won the award at least once in that time.
Duke is the first team to sweep the ACC weekly awards since it did so on Feb. 3, 2020, when Vernon Carey Jr. took home both Player and Freshman of the Week honors.
The No. 19 Blue Devils (5-2, 3-0 ACC) travel to Blacksburg, Va., for a conference tilt with No. 20 Virginia Tech (9-2, 3-1) on Tuesday, Jan. 12. The game tips at 7 p.m. on ACC Network.
