It is halftime in Maui as the Duke Basketball team is in a Top-Ten battle with the No. 8 Auburn Tigers the semifinals of the Maui Invitational.
The Duke Blue Devils got off to a quick 5-0 lead, but Zion Williamson finally look like a freshman after dribbling a pass off his foot and then committing a foul and then on the other end, Auburn threw down a lob on his watch and then he threw the inbound pass right back to the Tigers.
Williamson just wasn’t able to get in a rhythm in the first half in terms of scoring as he only was able to manage six points on one of three shooting, but the Blue Devils still lead the Tigers 44-31.
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R.J. Barrett was his attacking, dominating self as he led the Blue Devils with nine points along with three rebounds and two assists.
The biggest concern for the Blue Devils is foul trouble once again as Cam Reddish picked up three fouls in the first half but he did manage to score eight points on two of three shooting.
Marques Bolden and Jack White had a very productive first half as Bolden scored four points and grabbed six rebounds with one monster put back dunk, while White added five points and five rebounds in the first half.
Javin DeLaurier was once again very inconsistent, picking up two fouls and only scoring two points, and adding one rebound and one assist.
Tre Jones continued to show his improved shooting stroke as he scored seven points on three of six shots, to go along with two assists.
Auburn has shot very poorly in the first half, 33.3 %, but toward the end of the first half they began to hit some of their shots at the Blue Devils became very stagnant on offense and weren’t contesting the Auburn shots.
The Blue Devils needs to create more ball movement in the second half to create driving lanes and easy looks at the basket.
Auburn isn’t going to just lay down, but the Blue Devils have shown the ability all year to put its foot on the gas and not look back, and they should do that in the second half.
Stay tuned to Ball Durham at our Twitter, @Ball_Durham, and here at our website, balldurham.com, for complete coverage of the Duke Blue Devils vs. the Auburn Tigers.