It wasn’t pretty, but the Blue Devils handled business.Â
No. 4 Duke defeated Incarnate Word 72-46 Tuesday evening. Despite a tight first half, the Blue Devils broke away in the beginning of the second frame on the backs of Sion James and Khaman Maluach. It was Maluach who led the offensive effort with 17 points on an efficient 6-of-7 shooting line.Â
“[I] thought we were trying to make the right play, thought we were trying to be unselfish,” head coach Jon Scheyer said of his team’s second-half play.Â
James, in just his third start for the Blue Devils, got called for two fouls within the first minute. Coming out of the break, the graduate transfer made his presence known, scoring four of the first nine points of the half and grabbing three defensive boards. Duke was no longer stagnant, though it kept the Cardinals scoreless through nearly seven minutes. The seven-point lead stretched to 18, and the home team could breathe again.Â
“[I’ve] played enough college basketball to kind of learn how to play with fouls,” James said.Â
After a tight, defensive first half, the Duke offense got moving quickly. Maluach continued his first-half push with an and-one to open the frame, and Kon Knueppel capitalized on a shooting foul by Jordan Pyke on the next possession, making both free throws. The Blue Devils have struggled from the line this season, and that improved tonight as they went 16-for-21. The free-throw attempts were aided by messy Cardinal play — Duke was in the bonus with 13:38 to play in the second half.Â
Duke (8-2, 1-0 in the ACC) went a measly 2-for-14 from three to start; it leaned on drives and points in the paint. With under 11 minutes to play and a 19-point lead, Knueppel broke through, making the team’s first 3-pointer since a Proctor connected six minutes into the first. Evans followed suit 24 seconds later, his first of the night. A minute later, he missed one, but Gillis claimed the board and kicked it right back out to him. He didn’t miss the second time, and the Blue Devils led 54-28.Â
“You’ll never know when the next shot is coming,” Evans said. “So for it to come that quick, you know, got my feet set, got my form right, just knocked it in.”
It was a low-scoring affair; with under eight minutes to go in the first half, the score was 12-8. Nearly two minutes later, that margin became 12-10. Then Maluach got going, and the Duke offense came to life. The 7-foot-2 freshman scored six straight, stretching the lead to 10 over the next two minutes, and it wasn’t until a series of fouls by Evans and Caleb Foster, and the subsequent Incarnate Word free throws, that the Cardinals (5-5, 1-1 in the Southland) fought back within six. The Blue Devils’ 28 first-half points were their fewest this season.Â
“I think our offense can be a lot better, and starts with me helping them,” Scheyer said. “But we’re going to attack that this week and make some strides.”
With under two minutes to play in the half, Knueppel nabbed a steal from Pyke. The Duke possession that ensued was persistent, but fruitless. The Blue Devils missed three straight 3-point attempts, despite multiple second chances, eventually yielding the ball to a 3-pointer by Jalin Anderson. That cut the home team’s lead to three points with less than a minute left in the half. Maluach broke through for a short jumper on the other end and added two free throws in the final seconds, but the 34.5-point favorites entered the break only leading by seven.Â
For the bulk of the first half, both teams were cold. Incarnate Word, who entered the game ranked fourth nationally in 3-point percentage (42.6%), went 2-for-11. Senior Davion Bailey, who typically shoots at a 45.8% clip from the floor, went 1-of-10. Freshman guard Knueppel, hailed for his shot, struggled in the first half, hitting 1-of-3 attempts.Â
Duke was without its best defender against Incarnate Word. Before the game, the program announced that Maliq Brown is day-to-day with a toe injury and would miss the contest. The transfer has quickly made himself indispensable to the Blue Devils, ranking seventh nationally in steal percentage according to KenPom. He is also the second-leading rebounder for Duke with 5.9 boards per game, behind only Cooper Flagg.Â
Without Brown, the Blue Devils brought freshman center Patrick Ngongba II in early, less than five minutes into the game. Ngongba was sidelined for the first three games of the season due to injury, and has not seen much playing time since. The St. Paul VI product hasn’t quite adjusted to the college game; he turned the ball over twice early and missed a quick pass attempt from Foster under the rim.
“I think part of it’s just, you know, getting game experience…” Scheyer said of Ngongba. “He just makes others better on the court.”
Duke closes out its early nonconference slate next Tuesday, Dec. 17 against George Mason in Cameron Indoor.Â
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| Sports Managing Editor
Rachael Kaplan is a Trinity senior and a senior editor of The Chronicle’s 120th volume.
