Duke defeated Bucknell 90-60 Friday night at Cameron to run its record to 3-1, while dropping the visitors to 1-4.
No surprise. But more drama than the score suggests.
Led by the 3-point shooting of Jack Forrest and Ruot Biijek, Bucknell hung tough for most of the first half. Duke led only 33-29, with 3:33 left before intermission after Biijek knocked down his third triple. And Forrest had one stretch where he scored 15 points in eight minutes. In fact, at one point Forrest and Biijek had 23 of Bucknell’s 24 points.
Then the well ran dry. The duo combined for only two points in the second half, a Forrest lay-up.
Did they cool off or did Duke help them?
“Probably a combination,” Scheyer said. “They had lots of clean looks, which we need to clean up. For us to defend the 3-point line has always been a point of emphasis always. We gave up too many open looks but I thought we turned up the screws a little bit.”
Bucknell was 6 for 17 from beyond the arc in the first half, 3 for 12 in the second.
But that wasn’t even the big drama. With just over four minutes left in the first half Kyle Filipowski suffered an apparent rolled ankle when fouled by Ian Motta. This happened right in front of me and trust me Filipowski was in a lot of pain. A lot.
But he came back, started the second half, got fouled again, made two foul shots, after which Jon Scheyer decided he had seen enough. Filipowski took a seat and didn’t return.
Filipowski ended the game with 10 points, six rebounds, two steals, an assist and a block in less than 17 minutes of action.
“We feel very optimistic,” Scheyer said of the injury, while cautioning that Duke still needed to see what kind of swelling could manifest overnight.
Scheyer was so concerned with the level of physicality against his players that he picked up his first career technical foul, for which he did not seem especially apologetic.
“I can always go to bat for my guys. I was fired up because Sean [Stewart] went to the basket hard and Mark [Mitchell] went to the basket hard.” He left the sentence unfinished but the inference was obvious.
Duke closed the first half on an 11-0 run to take a 44-29 lead into the locker room.
The highlight of that run was a steal and dunk from Ryan Young to put Duke up 41-29.
Bucknell never made a serious threat in the second half. Coming off a desultory performance against Michigan State Tuesday night Jared McCain scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half.
“Just continue to work,” McCain said of his bounce-back game. “Never get too high, never get too low.”
Mark Mitchell led everyone with 20 points, 16 in the first half. That’s a career high for the sophomore.
Mitchell hit 8 of 13 from the field and added 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
“My whole life I’ve been versatile” he said. “Something I’ve prided myself on has been my size and skill set and different things I can do on the court. Me getting downhill, setting up for others, doing a lot of different things on the court, is something I practice.”
Lots of Blue Devils had impressive stat lines. Tyrese Proctor had 13 points, four assists and another turnover-free outing. Caleb Foster added 9 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Young had 5 assists and zero turnovers, Sean Stewart 6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals.
Excluding some bricks tossed up by the deeper end of the bench Duke’s core players combined for 13 of 28 from beyond the arc, while Duke had 23 assists and only seven turnovers.
McCain was 5 for 7 on 3s.
Jeremy Roach says that turnover to assist ratio is no accident.
“Just trying to move the ball, trying to flow in the offense, not really stop and call plays. It’s a big thing taking care of the ball, finding the right guy, finding the open guy, keeping it popping.”
Duke also dominated the glass, 46-27, with the 6-3 McCain leading everyone with 10 rebounds.
Not how I saw him getting his first college double-double.
“We talked a lot about guard rebounding,” Scheyer said. “For Jared to come off a game where he probably didn’t play as well as he wanted to or as much as he wanted to have 17 and 10 and for me I love the 10 more than the 17. That really was the start of our fast break, the guards getting in and rebounding.”
Duke had 15 transition points.
The Blue Devils also made 13 of 16 from the line.
Scheyer opened with praise for rebounding and ball movement.
“I thought it was a good game,” said, “had a chance for a lot of different guys to play.”
Mark Mitchell played an excellent game. Duke was impressive from beyond the arc. Last night it was McCain’s turn to shine. Lots of credit to Bucknell which is a talented team that will make some noise in the Patriot League. I’m impressed by Sean Stewart and believe he has a huge upside. The Filipowski rolled ankle caused some anxiety.
Overall, an enjoyable Friday evening.