Duke pulls away from Brown in second half after rusty and sleepy first

The Duke Basketball team pulled away from the Brown Bears in the second half after a sleepy and rusty first half.

In the first half against Brown, the Duke Blue Devils were still in Christmas break mode. So much so, that Mike Krzyzewski ripped off his blazer and spiked it and launched it during a timeout.

Only leading by six at halftime, it’s safe to assume the speech in the locker room was spirited from Coach K as the Blue Devils outscored Brown 40-21 in the second half.

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Duke was without sophomore point guard Tre Jones for the second straight game as he sits out with a foot sprain.

The anticipation was that Jones would play on Saturday after Krzyzewski said after the win over Wofford that he would be “good to go” after break and that he would have played against the Terriers if it was an ACC game.

There’s no need to worry about Jones yet, but if the Minnesota native does not play in the conference opener on Tuesday night, then the alarms might start to go off in Durham.

However, the Blue Devils were led by Vernon Carey Jr. in the 75-50 victory on Saturday morning. The freshman didn’t reach another double-double but did drop 19 points, six rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block.

Jordan Goldwire started once again for Jones, and Joey Baker was also inserted in the starting lineup but had a rare off game with just two points on 1-of-6 shooting.

Goldwire racked up four points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals in the victory.

Wendell Moore and Alex O’Connell were the only other two players who reached double-figures on the afternoon with both putting the finishing touches on the victory late in the second half.

Jack White finished the afternoon with nine points and six rebounds while Matthew Hurt had eight points and Cassius Stanley ended his day with seven.

Duke’s consecutive games played with a made 3-pointer was in jeopardy as the Blue Devils missed its first 13 shots from deep and it was O’Connell who made the first 3-pointer for Duke with just under seven minutes to play.

The No. 4 Duke Blue Devils improved to 11-1 on the season and have officially finished the non-conference portion of its schedule as ex-Blue Devil Derryck Thornton makes his return to Cameron Indoor Stadium with the Boston College Eagles on Tuesday, December 31 at 6:00pm EST on the ACC Network.