Duke cruised to an 82-45 victory over defending CIAA champions Fayetteville State Wednesday night in their final pre-season tune up.
And tune up it was. Duke played without injured freshman Dariq Whitehead and Dereck Lively II. But Duke was too long, too deep and too talented even without those two presumed freshman stars.
Jon Scheyer said following the game that Whitehead was a couple of weeks away, while Lively is day-to-day.
Duke did actually trail once, at 2-0. And it was tied at 5-5. But an 8-0 Duke run ended even that modicum of suspense.
Duke led 50-22 at the half, dominating inside and in transition. In fact Duke had a 16-0 first-half advantage in transition points, assisting on 13 of the 17 made field goals. Freshman Mark Mitchell (13), grad-student Jake Grandison (10) and grad-student Ryan Young (10) all hit double figures by halftime.
Scheyer said fast-break basketball would have to be part of this team’s identity.
“We definitely want to play fast. We have four guys on the floor, at times even five, who can push and start the break. We made really good decisions. We had them on their heels and ran to spots and when we had an early opportunity to drive and get to the rim, we definitely took advantage of that. It’s hard to play fast if you don’t get stops. We were able to do that and we need to continue to do that.”
Jeremy Roach only scored seven points but he had eight assists against a single turnover and said that right now he’s concentrating on getting good shots for his teammates.
“Play fast and have a good time out there,” he said. “Teams are going to try to game-plan for me. So me trying to force my shots probably isn’t the best thing. So, getting my teammates the ball and giving them confidence will open things up for me later.”
Freshman Mark Mitchell stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in 23 minutes, while playing all over the floor, posting up one minute, leading the fast break the next. Duke has thrived on versatile 6-8 players and Mitchell looks like the next in line.
“I’m a basketball player,” he said. “My whole life I’ve been very versatile. With my size and skill I can guard and play multiple positions.”
Duke extended its lead to 43 points at 67-24 on a Kyle Filipowski dunk. Scheyer started emptying his bench and there were some solid performances, including Christian Reeves grabbing four rebounds and blocking two shots in nine minutes. And Max Johns looked good burying a 3.
But the offense stalled down the stretch, which will mean absolutely nothing when more competitive games show up. Grandison led everyone with 17 points, followed by Mitchell, Ryan Young with 12 points and six rebounds and Jaylen Blakes with 12 points. Believe it or not Blakes led Duke with 27:43 minutes played.
And Duke hit 8 of 19 from beyond the arc, led by Grandison’s 3 for 6, while the team had 21 assists on 30 made field goals.
There were teachable moments. Fayetteville State grabbed 14 offensive rebounds, which irked Young.
“There’s no excuse. We can’t be losing the rebounding battle.”
But maybe that’s picking the nit. Young said Duke got what it needed.
“With such a young team I think it’s a big deal for all of our young guys to get that experience playing against another team in Cameron. A good tune up.”
Scheyer’s take?
“I thought our guys did a great job of sharing the ball and playing with great effort and energy.”
Good teams that play fast are fun to watch. I look forward to having lots of fun this season.