Miami hasn’t always been an easy place for Duke to play in recent years. We’ve got last season’s 81-59 Miami win as one data point, Miami’s 77-75 win in 2021 as another.
No such worries for 2024. Miami has been ravaged by injuries this season, Nigel Pack the most obvious absence. Duke can sympathize.
To an extent.
But not enough to let up.
Duke never trailed in an 84-55 win.
Mark Mitchell staked Duke to an 11-7 lead with eight early points. Kyle Filipowski had a spectacular sequence in which he hit a pull-up 3 in transition and followed shortly after with a reverse dunk.
Still, Miami hung tough for about 10 minutes, trailing only 16-14. But then it got away from them and it got away from them in a New York minute.
Tyrese Proctor didn’t start but he played 23 minutes, his concussion protocol seemingly a thing of the past. He hit a 3-pointer, then Jeremy Roach made two foul shots, then Caleb Foster hit a 3, then another and all of this happened with Miami coming up with empty possession after empty possession.
It only took Duke a little more than eight minutes to blow open the game with a 22-4 blitz.
“I don’t even know how much we’re up,” Roach said. “But we just wanted to extend the lead a little bit more, get a more comfortable lead.”
Duke led 40-23 at the half.
A young team on the road with a big lead could have let up. But Duke kept the pressure on the reeling home team, never giving them even a tiny hope of a comeback.
The final stat sheet shows the kind of balance that warms the cockles of any coach. Roach had 16 points in 24 minutes, making 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. Mitchell ended with 15 points.
Filipowski had 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks, while helping Duke hold Norchad Omier to 3 for 14 shooting.
“I thought it was one of Filipowski’s best games,” Scheyer said. “It’s not going to show in the box score, but he played with great poise. He was really strong. He played great defense. He makes the game so much easier for everybody else on the floor.”
Filipowski had only two fouls and one turnover.
Proctor?
“I was really happy with Tyrese,” Scheyer said. “We didn’t know how many minutes he could play tonight. He’s done about 10 minutes of contact since the last game he played against Wake Forest. I thought he had great minutes, played with a great pace.”
Scheyer praised Duke’s defense.
.”We switched a lot tonight. You can switch when you have five guys who can defend and stay in front of the ball. I thought we had great communication.”
Proctor had 12 points and five assists, Foster 11 points, McCain seven points and five boards, Ryan Young nine rebounds in 10 minutes, Sean Stewart seven rebounds in 11 minutes.
Wooga Poplar and Bensley Joseph had 15 points each for a Miami team that was outrebounded 42-31 and shot only 31 percent from the field. Duke had 19 assists to 10 turnovers and shot 52 percent from the field, 13 for 29 (45 percent) from three.
The win is Duke’s 16th in its last 18 games and leaves the Devils tied with UNC atop the ACC at 12-3. The ESPN announcers were keen to promote the regular-season finale against the Heels. But Duke has a tough road task against Wake Forest Saturday afternoon and the bracketology folks suggest this will be a huge game for the Deacs. They’ll be hungry.
But for now, Scheyer says of his team “We want to be at our best in February and March, and I think we’re on an upswing. I think we’ve continued to get better.”
Filipowski is on the same page.
“We know we've been in a position like this before, but we know there's still a lot more to accomplish. We’ve still got to set ourselves up for March.”
Informative analysis as always. Among many nuggets, this struck me, "Ryan Young nine rebounds in 10 minutes, Sean Stewart seven rebounds in 11 minutes." That's 16 rebounds in 21 minutes, from bench players. That is an awesome performance!