Duke jumped all over Virginia Saturday afternoon in Cameron and never looked back, defeating the Cavaliers 73-48.
Duke did trail once, 2-0. But a 7-0 run, then a 9-2 run and it was 19-6 after only seven minutes.
Some teams struggle to get 19 points against Virginia in an entire half.
Virginia simply does not allow teams to get downhill like that.
Duke got downhill.
“We were ready to play,” Jon Scheyer said. “The defense was terrific. I thought we did such a good job of flowing into offense, getting downhill and making the right reads. I don’t know that you can ever really speed them up. But if you can get stops, we always want to push in transition. Tonight we could do that because we did a good job on defense.”
They really kill people on the last five seconds of the shot clock,” Jeremy Roach said. “We wanted to limit our mistakes as much as possible. That was a big thing coming in, especially for the freshmen.”
We all remember Kyle Filipowski’s scoreless game in Charlottesville last season and the way the game ended, the uncalled foul and all that.
And sure Duke got payback in the ACC Tournament.
But Filipowski made no attempt to hide the fact that he remembers, body language and a wry smile in the post-game saying as much as his words.
“There’s so many games you can look at and I know we beat them last time. But we have to keep that edge on our shoulder.”
He scored nine of those first 19 Duke points, 15 by halftime, laughing the post-game that he had been “lollygagging” recently.
Filipowski didn’t do it by himself, of course.
Tyrese Proctor had one of his best all-around games this season, scoring, distributing, rebounding and defending Virginia’s freshman sharp-shooter, Isaac McKneely.
“He played a complete game,” Scheyer said. “He had two turnovers, so it wasn’t a perfect game. But it was close. He’s a big-time competitor and sometimes he wants to do so well, he can be analytical. But when he throws himself into competing, there’s nobody better, because he’s a two-way player.”
Duke just kept extending its lead, getting stops and controlling the glass and getting inside the (in)famous pack-line defense with relative ease.
Duke had 28 points in the paint in the first half, 44 for the game.
The lead hit 25-9, then 31-11, then 38-13.
“One of the best ones we’ve had” Jeremy Roach said of that first half. “We extend the lead to 10, we want to extend it to 15, then extend it to 20. Obviously we did this tonight. We’re just learning. This was a great step in the right direction.”
It was 40-18 at the half, Duke shooting 59% from the field, while holding the “Hoos to 23%, 1-6 from beyond the arc.
Virginia isn’t exactly built to score points in a hurry and Duke never really gave them even the slightest hint that a comeback was possible.
Virginia’s biggest second-half “run” was five points, cutting Duke’s lead from 43-18 to 43-23. Roach hit a step-back jumper, Mark Mitchell scored inside, Proctor slammed home a dunk in transition and it was 50-27 and it became game management.
Duke’s biggest lead was 68-39.
Filipowski led Duke with 21 points and added seven rebounds, two assists and three steals and would have had much more had he played more than 11:28 in the second half.
He was joined in double figures by Proctor (15 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists) and Mitchell (10 points, five rebounds, two steals). Roach had five assists to go along with six points.
And those two freshmen front-court players continued to get those productive “game reps” Scheyer was talking about earlier this week. T.J. Power hit a pair of 3-pointer for six points, while Sean Stewart had six points and eight rebounds in less than 15 minutes.
Scheyer confirmed that we shouldn’t expect to see Caleb Foster anytime soon. He’s still in a boot and isn't doing anything on the court.
Reece Beekman led Virginia with 18 points and seven assists.
Virginia shot 31% from the field, turned it over 12 times.
And just like Louisville earlier this week Duke won the battle of the boards decisively, 42-29, with five Devils grabbing at least four boards.
“Our guard rebounding is a huge addition to that,” Filipowski said. “When we do that our defense is a lot better, our offense is a lot better, everything is better when we’re out-rebounding other teams.”
Duke is now 23-6, 14-4 in the ACC, a big difference from the way we felt last week.
A quick turnaround to Monday at NC State, the third time this season Duke has taken on the Saturday/Monday thing.
“We’ve just got to turn the page as quickly as we can,” Roach said of the quick turnaround. Get ready for NC State.”
And don’t allow the Pack to jump off to a big, early lead as happened last year in Raleigh.
“We remember that game,” Roach said. “They sped us up, turned us over, made a lot of shots. We’ll be ready.”
“We know how tough of a place it is,” Scheyer said of PNC Arena. “We know how dangerous they are. It’s all about the preparation, turning the page, enjoying it, come back to tomorrow, get ready and have the same energy, competitiveness, effort that we did today.”
The players I talked to last night after the game have very vivid memories of what happened last season at PNC Arena. I don't think they'll be looking past State.
Many forward steps made tonight. Kyle played within himself, but took advantage of every chance to score, board, and defend. For the most part, he dominated the Virginia "pack line". Mark played his guts out, and Jeremy & Tyrese had standout games. Jared was average in the 1st half, but picked up his game in the 2nd. Power & Stewart had their moments. The offense had perhaps its best showing against a top defense. They need to be ready to go Monday nite against the Pack in Raleigh, but have the rest of the week to get ready for Carolina.
If this team continues to improve their passing on offense, and be aggressive on defense, they will likely excel in the ACCT & NCAA's.