Duke Basketball: HALFTIME REPORT: Army attack stunning Blue Devils
By Matt Giles
The Duke basketball team is honoring Veterans Day and capping off an attention-grabbing first week of the regular season by hosting the Army Black Knights, and here is the halftime report.
The first half of the Duke basketball team’s regular-season home debut did not start with as dominant of a display as fans may have expected. At the eight-minute mark, head coach Mike Krzyzewski had to call a timeout to try to get his Blue Devils to relax after Army cut Duke’s lead to 36-30.
But it didn’t get much better for the Blue Devils as they struggled to stop the Black Knights, who were 7-of-15 from beyond the arc. Duke ended the half with just a 50-42 advantage.
The Blue Devils did not have the same lights-out shooting stroke as they displayed during their historic 118-84 statement victory over Kentucky on Tuesday night, nor did they play the same level of shutdown defense. Duke ended the half 19-of-41 from the field (7-of-19 from three).
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Another unexpected tidbit is that it took 13 minutes before fans were able to witness a dunk by the Blue Devils — no surprise, an alley-oop dunk by freshman Zion Williamson.
As a result of the score being much closer than expected, Krzyzewski, in his 39th season at the helm in Durham after serving as head coach at West Point from 1975-80, won’t likely be pulling his starters as early as most, including this writer at Ball Durham, expected him to.
In fact, if the Black Knights continue to play the same way they did in the first half, and the Blue Devils don’t find a way to assert their dominance, the starters may be in the game until the end.
Williamson has a game-high 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field; he also has six boards. Fellow freshman Cam Reddish has 11 points, coming mostly from his 3-of-6 shooting performance from downtown. As for R.J. Barrett, he is a bit chilly at the moment, having shot just 3-of-10 from the field.
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Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more coverage following the game and all season long.