Duke basketball breakout star shines with potent display in exhibition

The potential Duke basketball breakout star shined in Wednesday’s exhibition. 

The star power on the Duke basketball team seems unlimited this season and it was on full display during the team’s exhibition on Wednesday night against the University of North Carolina at Pembrook.

Predictably, the Blue Devils won, 109-64, but the final score and some other stats just do not hold a lot of weight because of the opponent the the talent, and size, discrepancy between one of the top teams in the country and a Division II squad.

However, the one aspect of the game that truly stands out was the shooting clinic put on by sophomore point guard Tyrese Proctor.

Proctor was 5-for-8 from 3-point range, making his first four attempts from the field, and all five made baskets came in the first half.

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Improving his shooting numbers was something that the Australian guard put an emphasis on this offseason after only connecting on 32.0-percent of his shots from the outside during his freshman year.

All of Duke’s starters — which included freshman guard Jared McCain — reached double figures in the victory but all other players, not including Proctor, were just 6-of-17 from 3-point range (35.2-percent).

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Kyle Filipowski led the way with 17 points and McCain added 15 points, with the help of nine made free throws.

Freshman forward Sean Stewart, who seemingly is not in the thick of the rotation based on his minutes in the exhibition, impressed with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting in just 13 minutes.

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It remains a question how Duke will utilize its backup forwards this season, trying to keep Filipowski and Mark Mitchell on the court as long as possible.

Ryan Young only logged nine minutes in the game and Christian Reeves, due to precautionary reasons, did not play.

Things get serious on Monday, November 6 when Duke opens the regular season against Dartmouth (9:00p.m. ET, ACC Network).