Duke Crushes Evansville 104-40
It’s not going to get much better than that.
Duke took advantage of its only post-exam, pre-Christmas game with a 104-40 demolition of visiting Evansville Wednesday night.
The Purple Aces came into Cameron with a 10-2 record but missing its two leading scorers, Ryan Taylor (21.3 ppg) and Dru Smith (12.4). Its hard for anyone to overcome that kind of hit, especially against a focused Duke team, determined to wipe out the memory of the Boston College defeat 11 days ago.
Defense was the name of the practice game at Cameron since then, as much as Duke could shoehorn practice in amongst exams and end-of-semester projects. Grayson Allen said several practices were devoted to nothing but defense and the results were obvious.
Evansville came into the game leading the nation in 3-point percentage, a jaw-dropping 49.4 percent. They only got off six 3-pointers in the first half, making just one.
On the other end of the floor, Duke was knocking down 3s like it was target practice. But it wasn’t always who you think it would have been. Freshman Wendell Carter, Jr. came into the game 3-for-7 on the season.
“I’ve spent time working with Coach Capel on my outside shooting,” Carter said, “and my coaches and teammates have encouraged me to take that shot when I’m open. It felt good leaving my hands, so I just kept shooting.”
Open barely begins to describe the space Evansville was giving him. After Carter knocked down two bombs in the first half and two more after intermission, it looks like opposing teams have another problem to game plan for.
Duke tends to knock out overmatched opponents with a run but rarely have we seen so many. Duke went on a 16-2 run to open up a 21-9 lead. Then an 18-2 run. Then a 19-2 run to end the first half, at 58-18, then an 11-0 run to open the second half.
If you’re a connoisseur of that sort of thing, Duke outscored Evansville 48-5 over a 16-minute period, spanning both halves.
It’s hard to be more efficient than Duke was in the opening half, 21-31 from the field (8-11 on 3s), 8-11 from the line, three turnovers.
Obviously, lots of things must click to take a 69-18 lead. But it all started with an aggressive, athletic defense.
“I’m definitely happy with that,” Grayson Allen said. “Hopefully, we don’t have short-term memory loss and don’t forget it all. But that’s the best game of team defense we’ve had. What we did tonight has to become our habit, something we do all the time, tired or not, making shots or not.”
Duke not only got stops, they got blocks and steals, turning both into fast breaks. The highlight came five minutes into the second half, when Marques Bolden blocked a K.J. Riley layup. Trevon Duval grabbed the rebound and immediately whipped a 75-foot bullet to a streaking Alex O’Connell, for a dunk.
Or maybe it was Jordan Goldwire diving into the stands to save a loose ball and start another fast break.
Or, you name it. A highlight reel. A run, jump, dunkathon.
Of course, Duke had a run, jump, dunkathon the last time we saw them in Cameron and we know what happened next.
The ACC looms and Mike Krzyzewski says you just have to learn on the go.
“Talent is one thing but experienced talent is best, because you’ve already been through it. We’re going to have a long road. We know that. But as long as we’re at our best in March, that’s our goal.”
“I know exactly what’s ahead,” Allen says, “and I know it’s going to be tough.”
“We’re slowly but surely turning the corner on defense,” Gary Trent, Jr. added. “We’re getting better and better on defense and we just have to keep working at it and continue to improve. We wanted to put that last game in the past. It was only one loss and we aim to keep it that way.”
Notes
Duke had 39 made field goals and assisted on 32 of them, while turning it over only five times.
Point guards Duval and Goldwire combined for 15 assists, against a single turnover.
“That’s an incredible stat,” Allen said. “This is a very different team than what I’ve played on. It starts with Trevon being the guy on the point. A lot of the assists come from being able to play defense. A lot of our best assists start when we get a defensive rebound and run.”
Duke added nine blocks and 13 steals, while outrebounding Evansville 36-24 and shooting 61.9 percent from the field and 76.9 percent from the line. Duke hit 16 of 26 from beyond the arc, with seven players connecting at least once. Evansville ended 5-14 on 3s and turned it over 21 times.
Carter had a career-high 27 points, with Marvin Bagley III (18), Allen (16) and Trent (13) joining him in double figures. Bagley had seven rebounds, Marques Bolden six boards and three blocks, and Trent three steals.
Justin Robinson hit two 3-pointers for a career-high six points.
No Duke player played more than Bagley’s 25 minutes. A dozen players saw action, 10 double-figure minutes.
Javin DeLaurier and Jordan Tucker set out the game with injuries. DeLaurier said it was a tight hamstring. Krzyzewski suggested dehydration as the culprit, which indicating that both should be available for the next game, a home match against a dangerous Florida State team.
The win was Duke’s 139th consecutive home win against non-ACC opponents. Only ACC teams remain on the home schedule this season.
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- Box Score (PDF)
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- Season Stats (PDF)
- Postgame Notes (PDF)
- Coach K Quotes
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