Duke Basketball: Zion Williamson drops 30 as Blue Devils topple Deacons

If the Duke basketball players ever figure out how to consistently start games with as much firepower as they display going into and coming out of halves, future opponents don’t stand a chance.

Once again, the Duke basketball team started slow.

Once again, it didn’t matter.

Tied at 28 with under six minutes to play in the first half on the road against a 7-6 Wake Forest squad, No. 1 Duke (now 13-1) went into the locker room on a 14-6 run. Swishes from deep, courtesy of freshman forward Cam Reddish, both sparked and capped off that run.

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And with another 10-3 scoring advantage immediately following the break, the Blue Devils were well on their way to another blowout victory. This one, though, an 87-65 win in Winston Salem, N.C., was the Blue Devils’ first test inside an opponent’s arena.

In the first half, Duke struggled early as a result of trying to pass the test by settling for a barrage of 3-pointers (5-for-15 from deep before the break).

But after halftime, the Blue Devils opted for the simpler route. Blocks and steals (13 and 7 for the game, respectively) followed by dunks and layups led to the team’s 10th win by more than 20 points for the season.

Duke ended with a less-than-impressive 7-for-23 clip for the game from downtown. Of course, it would have been much worse without a 3-for-4 mark from an unlikely assassin, freshman forward Zion Williamson (he entered the game 4-for-21 from deep for the season).

And without Williamson’s overall performance, the final score would have surely been much closer. The 6-foot-7, 285-pounder out of Spartanburg, S.C., who has been making the college game look oh-so-easy all season — especially of late, though — finished with 30 points (13-for-16 from the field), 10 rebounds, five assists, and four steals; he became the first Duke freshman in history to put up that quantity of those four stats in a game.

Fellow freshman R.J. Barrett came in second on the list of impressive performances with 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting. He also added seven assists.

Also, the Blue Devils’ two junior big men came up bigger than usual. Marques Bolden finished with 12 points, six boards, and two blocks. And Javin DeLaurier contributed eight points and nine rebounds; the co-captain was 3-for-3 from the field, extending his streak of consecutive makes to 19, one shy of tying former Blue Devil Alaa Abdelnaby’s ACC record.

ALSO READ: Javin DeLaurier shooting streak shows grasp of role

Another junior co-captain, forward Jack White, did not score; however, as always, he showed up in other ways: eight rebounds, five blocks, and two assists.

Reddish finished with 10 points. Unfortunately, his two 3-pointers to spark and complete Duke’s first-half run were his only two makes from deep on the night; he was 4-for-9 from the field and 2-for-7 from beyond the arc.

ALSO READ: Cam Reddish deserves patience due to defense, attitude

Finally, freshman point guard Tre Jones had his typical kind of nearly flawless night: six points, seven assists, one steal, and only one turnover.

Next up for the Blue Devils is another — and far more difficult — road test: at No. 13 Florida State on Saturday at 2 p.m. (on ESPN).