Duke Basketball: Blue Devils turn on jets in second half to beat Princeton
After the ten day off because of exams and a sloppy first half, the Duke Basketball team used a big second half to run away from Princeton.
It was a very sloppy first half, and that was expected since the Blue Devils had not played in ten days, but Duke was able to get into its rhythm late in the first half against the Princeton Tigers.
The Blue Devils took a 13 point lead into the break, but outscored Princeton by 38 in the second half to roll to a 101 – 50 victory.
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R.J. Barrett led the way for Duke with 27 points, making eleven of his twenty one shot attempts and adding six rebounds, three assists, and a block and a steal.
Midway through the first half there was an injury scare with Zion Williamson as he was hit with an inadvertent elbow and had to head to the bench to be checked out, but he would return to the game shortly and finish with another double-double.
Williamson’s final stat line was 17 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks.
Cam Reddish continued getting his shot to fall, but managed to drain three shots, all three makes coming from three point range.
On the night Reddish was three of eleven, totaling nine points and adding three rebounds, an assist, two steals, and a block.
Tre Jones also struggled shooting the basketball making one of his six attempts, but the freshman point guard made his presence known in all other aspects of the game with six assists and four rebounds.
The last member of the Blue Devils starting five, Javin DeLaurier, added six points, three rebounds, and a steal and a block on the night.
Coach K played his entire roster tonight and the entire roster scored with the exception for Mike Buckmire.
Jack White, Alex O’Connell, and Marques Bolden led the way for the bench played as White and O’Connell both had 10 points while Bolden added seven points and five rebounds.
Justin Robinson added five points to the winning cause while Antonio Vrankovic had three points and Jordan Goldwire and Brennan Besser both had two points.
The Blue Devil defense was as good as ever, forcing 12 steals and blocking 13 shots on the night as Duke will head north to face the No. 12 Texas Tech Red Raiders on Thursday night from Madison Square Garden.