Duke basketball rookie has ‘inspirational’ performance against La Salle

Duke basketball rookie Sean Stewart had a career-best performance against La Salle. 

Sean Stewart has slowly made his impression on the Duke basketball team and Tuesday night against La Salle was his biggest performance yet.

The freshman went for a career-high 16 points and 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes of action.

The Florida native tied his previous career-high in the Blue Devils’ previous game against Bucknell with six points.

“When my number was called, I had to go in there and give a bunch of energy,” the rookie said in a postgame social media video.

Stewart pulled down six offensive rebounds in the 95-66 victory, which Tyrese Proctor said was “inspirational,” as the 6-foot-9 forward attributed the extra motivation to having his grandmother in the crowd.

Proctor went for a career-high 22 points, seven rebounds, and four assists.

“We’re still figuring out lineups and who plays well together and who compliments one another,” Jon Scheyer said.

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“The exciting part for me with Sean is he’s got so much room to grow.”

The Montverde Academy (Fla.) product came into Durham as a 5-star recruit who was ranked as the No. 17 player in the country, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings, but has not seen a lot of minutes since the season began.

Duke basketball forward hoping to continue on development curve

Tuesday night was a career-high in minutes played (18) for Sean Stewart after seeing 16 minutes against Bucknell and receiving more more than 10 minutes in either of the first three games against Dartmouth, Arizona, and Michigan State.

Duke is hoping that this stretch of games is able to see the continued development of its freshman forward.

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“He can do something right now that translates with his ability to rebound, his ability to protect the rim, his versatility guarding the ball,” Scheyer added.

“That’s something we didn’t do as well overall tonight; he did though.”

Duke (4-1) will play its final game of the Blue Devil Challenge on Friday evening (6:00p.m. ET, ACC Network) against Southern Indiana (1-5).