Not much of a surprise that the Blue Devils had a fairly easy time against the Central Arkansas Bears. The Blue Devils overwhelmed the Bears 105 to 54. On the strength of 19 points each from Matthew Hurt.
Duke used a steady diet of pressure in the first half to turn the Bears over 15 times, 11 of which were steals. Sophomore guard Tre Jones went out with a head injury after a collision with Central Arkansas player. Jones looked to be but was held out the second half for precaution. Uncommon for this Duke team in this early season so far was a shooting percentage from beyond the arc of 50%.
The beginning of half 2 saw the Blue Devils struggle some in the half court on both ends of the floor. As the game seemed slowed down the Blue Devils were sloppy. A time out from Coach K and a verbal drubbing seemed to stem the tide and the Blue Devils were much more efficient on each end. Pushing the lead to 46 at the 8 minute mark. The point guard work primarily went to Wendell Moore and to a lesser extent Jordan Goldwire.
In addition to Matthew Hurt’s 19 points Duke got double-figure efforts from Vernon Carey (17), Cassius Stanley (13) Javin DeLaurier (11), Alex O’Connell (10) and Wendell Moore with 10.
Vernon Carey also added 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils and shot 80% from the field. As a team the Blue Devils shot 50% from 3 point range and 56.8% overall. Duke won the rebounding battle 46 – 26 and forced 21 Bear turnovers.
