Duke used a dominant stretch over the final four minutes of the first half to jump start an equally dominant second half in defeating Hofstra 89-68 Tuesday night.
The win runs Duke’s record to 7-3, with exams coming up.
Jon Scheyer compared Kyle Filipowski to a queen on a chessboard and his sophomore star demonstrated that in spades, with 28 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists and three blocks; and yes, seven turnovers.
Still some things to clean up.
Hofstra is a pretty good mid-major, with wins this season against High Point, South Florida and Iona. They’re certainly better than South Indiana.
And they made Duke work early. Darlingstone Dubar--he came into the game 17 for 49 on 3s-found a spot he liked in the corner and worked it to the death, knocking down five triples in the first half.
“Some of those were tough shots,’ Scheyer said “and some of those I think we could have done better.”
Dunbar’s fourth 3-pointer put Hofstra up 29-28, the fifth 34-32. When their best player, Tyler Thomas hit a triple, Duke trailed 37-32, with 3:56 left in the half.
Duke went small, Filipowski and guards Jeremy Roach, Caleb Foster, Jared McCain and Jaylen Blakes and regained the lead.
“We went with Jaylen in there because we wanted to spread them out,” Scheyer said, while acknowledging Mark Mitchell’s struggles. “We felt like we could guard on defense and Jaylen was really playing well for us. We’re not afraid to play whatever five guys are playing the best. They gave energy and our offense flowed.”
Filipowski had an old-fashioned 3-point play, then a layup to tie it, then Roach hit a layup, then Foster hit a 3 and Duke went into the locker room up 44-39, a 12-2 run to close the half.
“Just winning those final four minutes, Filipowski said, “just getting the stops. We need to get better finishing the first half and we actually did that this time and that gave us a good little boost going into the second half.”
Scheyer said he “felt pretty positive” going into the locker room and his team backed that up.
“Hofstra’s a good team,” Roach said. “They’re an NCAA Tournament team. They were hitting some tough shots in the first half but we wanted to sustain our pressure, sustain our defense, make them take some tough shots. We knew they couldn’t sustain that for 40 minutes. We just wanted to keep the pressure on them.”
Hofstra scored first in the second half but Roach hit a 3, McCain hit a pull-up in the lane, Filipowski hit a couple of 3s and it was 55-43.
It never got any closer than nine points after that.
Filipowski joked that Scheyer wouldn’t leave him in at the end of the game for fear that he would have a quadruple double, with 10 turnovers.
But he credited “reading what the defense is giving me and coming out with energy, no matter if I’m getting the ball early or not.”
Filipowski hit 4 of 7 from beyond the act, 4 of 5 from the lines, shooting stats we don’t always see from seven footers.
“I’ve been putting in the work and the ball was just falling.”
Duke went with Filipowski and four guards a lot and somehow still dominated the glass, 32-23. In fact, Hofstra was held to two offensive rebounds and no second-chance points.
.”Even if you’re blocking out a bigger guy,” Scheyer said, “you don’t even have to get the rebound. You block him out and your teammate is going to have your back. I’ll have to watch the film but I think there were four or five of those tonight where they guy who started the blockout didn’t get the ball but somebody else did because he put his body on the line.”
Duke forced 10 of Hofstra’s 14 turnovers in the second half and turned many of them into fast-break points.
And what a game from Roach, 19 points, eight assists, no turnovers, 3 for 5 on 3s.
“I thought Jeremy was in great control of the game,” Scheyer said. “For me it was his command, his poise, the way he looked. He was never rattled. He’s stepped up big time for us.”
Duke ended with 22 assists on 33 made field goals, while hitting 33 of 60 from the field, 11 of 22 on 3s, 12 of 14 from the line.
Mitchell struggled with his shooting--5 for 16 from the field--but ended with 14 points. Scheyer said Mitchell is doing the right things and is close to having a breakout offensive game.
McCain added 13 points, Foster nine,
Duke outscored Hofstra 45-29 after intermission. Dunbar ended up with seven 3s and 24 points. Thomas added 18, five below his average.
Off for a bit, taking care of the other part of the student-athlete equation.
Baylor at Madison Square Garden on the 20th. Tyrese Proctor is off the crutches and seeing the court.
But. “He really can’t explode at all. No movement at this point. We’re going to be very cautious with him.”