Duke basketball shows championship pedigree in blowout victory

The Duke basketball team showed a championship pedigree in the ACC Tournament. 

The Duke basketball team looks like a Final Four contender.

That might have been the case before the Blue Devils took the floor at the Greensboro Coliseum on Thursday afternoon but it certainly looked like it an hour into its quarterfinal matchup against Pittsburgh.

Duke (25-8) jumped out to a 12-0 lead against the Panthers and ended the game before the five minute mark.

Kyle Filipowski and Dariq Whitehead combined for three 3-pointers in the opening three minutes while Mark Mitchell added a jumper and Dereck Lively got on the board at the free throw line and former Duke associate head coach Jeff Capel, now Pittsburgh’s (22-12) head coach, knew the rout was on.

Filipowski, who turned his ankle early in the game, still led the Blue Devils with 22 points but stunningly was not credited with a rebound in the 96-69 victory.

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Duke led 48-32 at halftime and extended its lead to as many as 36 points, 92-56, in the final six minutes.

Mitchell, Lively, and Tyrese Proctor all reached double figures while 11 different Blue Devils recorded at least two points.

Proctor looked control of the offense once again with 11 points and 10 assists as his backcourt counterpart, Jeremy Roach, finished with nine points, four rebounds, and six assists.

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Duke shot a scorching 62.1-percent from the field, its best shooting performance of the season, and connected on 42.3-percent of its attempts from 3-point range.

The 27-point margin was the second largest margin of victory for Duke in an ACC Tournament game since 2010 and it allowed Jon Scheyer to not play anyone on his roster for more than 27 minutes in the victory.

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The Blue Devils will get a matchup with Miami for a third time this season, this time in the ACC Tournament semifinals, after the Hurricanes fended off Wake Forest in the opening game of the day.

Both teams won on its home floor but the most recent game — on February 6 in Coral Gables — was a 81-59 victory for the ‘Canes.