Duke basketball: Caleb Foster calls breakout game ‘a dream come true’

Duke basketball freshman guard Caleb Foster is living his dream. 

A brief two game losing skid was not in the cards for the Duke basketball team on Tuesday night in Chicago as freshman guard Caleb Foster caught fire to help the Blue Devils hold off Michigan State, 74-65.

Foster finished with a team-high 18 points and led the charge in the second half with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting after halftime.

“It’s a dream come true,” Foster said in a social media interview after the game with sophomore forward Mark Mitchell.

“Thankful for my teammates for letting me make big plays.”

The 6-foot-5 guard entered Duke as a 5-star recruit, No. 19 in the country according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, but was one of the biggest snubs from the McDonald’s All-American Game as the country never saw how explosive his game was before getting to Durham.

Now, it knows.

Foster added 15 points in the season opening victory over Dartmouth for the Blue Devils but was held scoreless against Arizona on Friday night.

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“My mindset was just to be ready,” Foster said during his postgame press conference.

“One thing my dad always told me is to stay steady. There’s going to be ups and downs throughout the season, so just keep your head up and keep working.”

Duke basketball knew breakout game was coming for freshman

Caleb Foster’s six straight points, on back-to-back 3-pointers, in the final three minutes clinched the game for the Blue Devils as it extended its lead to 12 points, 68-56, its largest lead of the victory.

“He always stays working, he always keeps his head up,” Mark Mitchell said. “He’s a big time player, he makes big time plays.”

Foster is now 13-of-18 from the field to begin his college career and 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

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“He’s as hard as any worker we have on the team,” Jon Scheyer said. “What Caleb did tonight, he won us the game.”

“It says a lot about him, as a freshman, being in this environment, in this moment…I just thought it was a big-time response, and I can’t say enough about his attitude.”

Duke and Caleb Foster will be back on the court Friday (6:00p.m. EST, ACC Network) against Bucknell, which is the first of three games the team will play in the Blue Devil Invitational.