Not quite a nail biter in Philly but I don’t think anyone was particularly comfortable against Creighton Sunday night. Duke would take the game 66 – 50 but it never seemed like the lead was enough. Fortunately for Duke Creighton did not shoot the ball very well and Duke held scoring phenom Doug McDermott to 21, on 4 of 12 shooting. Aside from McDermott’s 21, no one else on the Creighton team scored in double digits. Greq Echenique was the next highest point total with 9. Duke would probably play its best defensive game wire to wire as they have all year.
Duke also had its own shooting woes. In the first half Duke shot 37% from the field and only managed 29 points. Duke had a hard time getting good shots for Ryan Kelly who managed 1 point on 0-5 shooting for the game, some of this can be attributed to the defense being played on Kelly to wall him off and some of it was Kelly being in foul trouble, he would have to sit long stretches of the game and clearly could not find a rhythm. Seth Curry rebounded from a 1 for 7 first half where he scored 7 points to finish the game with 17 total points. Curry hit big shots when Duke needed them but overall was only 5 of 15 and 2 of 9 from beyond the arc. Mason Plumlee did not have a huge night for Duke either as he, like Ryan Kelly, spent most of the second half in foul trouble. Mason was semi-effective when in, he did score 10 points, in a low scoring affair that 10 points was needed. Plumlee only took 7 shots and Duke will need to get that number up going forward, some of that will be Plumlee just playing smarter defense and staying on the court.
Offensively the player of the game has to be freshman Rasheed Sulaimon. Sulaimon came alive in this game and was much more aggressive scoring 21 points on 5 of 9 shooting and 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. Sulaimon also hit 3 of 5 from 3 point range in the game.
If you had to give a gold star to anyone in this game you’d have to say the reserves who stepped up with Plumlee and Kelly in foul trouble. Josh Hairston, Amile Jefferson and Tyler Thornton were all big parts of this victory. Each had some winning moments in this game. Hairston filled in the best he could, giving Duke extra fouls and also taking a charge and pulling down 5 rebounds. Amile Jefferson would come in and play both forwards spots at times, and pulled down two important rebounds for Duke as well as an inside bucket to extend the Duke lead as Creighton threatened in the second half. Tyler Thornton hit 2 much-needed threes in the game, one in particular in the waning moments of the first half to extend the Duke lead from 3 to 6 and giving Duke some momentum heading into half 2. Thornton also pulled down 4 defensive rebounds for the Devils as well.
Up next for Duke is surging Michigan State, it will be a coaching match-up for the ages with Tom Izzo and Coach K going at each other again. Both coaches know each others styles very well and are friends off the court.
Official Basketball Box Score
Creighton vs Duke
3/24/13 09:47 pm at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pa.
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VISITORS: Creighton 28-8
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 Doug McDermott...... f 4-16 1-4 12-12 2 7 9 5 21 0 3 0 0 35
00 Gregory Echenique... c 4-7 0-0 1-3 1 5 6 4 9 0 1 2 1 28
01 Austin Chatman...... g 2-11 1-6 2-2 0 3 3 1 7 1 0 0 0 38
10 Grant Gibbs......... g 4-7 0-1 0-0 0 5 5 5 8 4 2 0 0 28
12 Jahenns Manigat..... g 1-7 0-4 0-0 1 1 2 4 2 2 3 0 0 33
02 Taylor Stormberg.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
11 Andre Yates......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
22 Avery Dingman....... 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 4 4 4 0 2 0 0 0 16
23 Geoffrey Groselle... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
24 Nevin Johnson....... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
31 Will Artino......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
34 Ethan Wragge........ 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 1 14
40 Alex Olsen.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Team................ 2 1 3
Totals.............. 16-53 2-19 16-18 7 26 33 26 50 9 10 2 2 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-28 28.6% 2nd Half: 8-25 32.0% Game: 30.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-8 12.5% 2nd Half: 1-11 9.1% Game: 10.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-6 100 % 2nd Half: 10-12 83.3% Game: 88.9% 1
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HOME TEAM: Duke 29-5
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 2 3 5 5 10 1 2 1 2 27
34 Ryan Kelly.......... f 0-5 0-1 1-2 2 2 4 4 1 2 1 1 1 28
02 Quinn Cook.......... g 2-8 0-3 3-4 0 5 5 1 7 6 2 0 1 33
14 Rasheed Sulaimon.... g 5-9 3-5 8-10 0 5 5 0 21 0 0 0 0 30
30 Seth Curry.......... g 5-15 2-9 5-6 0 4 4 2 17 0 2 0 2 36
03 Tyler Thornton...... 2-2 2-2 2-3 0 6 6 0 8 0 0 1 1 23
12 Alex Murphy......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
15 Josh Hairston....... 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 4 5 5 0 0 2 0 0 10
21 Amile Jefferson..... 1-1 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 3 2 0 0 1 0 11
40 Marshall Plumlee.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 19-49 7-20 21-28 7 31 38 20 66 9 9 4 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-27 37.0% 2nd Half: 9-22 40.9% Game: 38.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-12 33.3% 2nd Half: 3-8 37.5% Game: 35.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 16-20 80.0% Game: 75.0% 4
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Officials: Doug Sirmons, Edward Corbett, Darren George
Technical fouls: Creighton-None. Duke-None.
Attendance: 20125
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Creighton..................... 23 27 - 50
Duke.......................... 29 37 - 66
2013 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship Third Round
Points in the paint-CREIGH 26,DU 20. Points off turnovers-CREIGH 9,DU 13.
2nd chance points-CREIGH 6,DU 6. Fast break points-CREIGH 0,DU 10.
Bench points-CREIGH 3,DU 10. Score tied-3 times. Lead changed-7 times.
Last FG-CREIGH 2nd-01:25, DU 2nd-04:16.
Largest lead-CREIGH by 4 1st-18:29, DU by 16 2nd-00:37.
