Duke had a sour taste in its mouth after the loss to Michigan State in Chicago. On Friday night, they were able to work out some kinks and frustrations on an overmatched SIU-Edwardsville team, rolling to a 90-47 win in Cameron Indoor to improve to 3-1 on the season.
This was an important game for Jon Scheyer and company to figure some things out with Illinois looming on Tuesday in Durham.
It was far from a perfect performance, but the Blue Devils had plenty of bright spots in the 43-point win.
Here are the biggest winners (buckets) and one loser (brick) from the win:
Buckets:
Patrick Ngongba II
Duke had a noticeable size advantage over SIUE, and Ngongba took advantage. He looked healthier than he did on Tuesday in Chicago, where he was battling an illness and became a game-time decision against the Spartans.
He stuffed the stat sheet at home in 21 minutes, scoring 13 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, dishing 4 assists, and tying a career-high with 5 blocked shots.
Predictably, SIUE had no answer for him or Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje on the interior.
Sebastian Wilkins
Wilkins has been a revelation early in the season for Scheyer as a player who just makes winning players over and over again in each game. He was one of the lone bright spots against Michigan State, and that carried over against SIUE.
In 15 minutes, he put up 11 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals. He did his damage from the free-throw line with aggressive drives to the basket. He hit 9-of-10 attempts from the charity stripe.
Wilkins continues to earn more minutes. He's going to be hard to keep off the court with how much he impacts winning.
Cayden Boozer
After a quiet night against Michigan State, sophomore point guard Cayden Boozer bounced back against SIUE with his second double-double in the last three games. He scored 11 points and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds.
Boozer mixed it up in the paint, getting four of his 10 boards on the offensive end of the floor to earn second-chance opportunities for the Blue Devils. He added 4 assists and a steal for good measure, too.
The guard play has to continue to improve, but Boozer's effort was a major bright spot on Friday.
Caleb Foster
After a Dame Sarr layup to open the game, Duke went ice cold and missed its next eight shot attempts from the field. They needed an offensive spark, and they got it from the senior Caleb Foster off the bench.
While three-point shooting continues to be a concern team-wide, Foster knocked down 3-of-5 from distance on his way to 12 points in 18 minutes.
Foster is embracing his role off the bench and is doing what he can to get the ball rolling for a struggling Duke offense.
Bricks:
John Blackwell
It has not been the start of the season that Duke - or John Blackwell - expected. The Wisconsin transfer was one of the biggest additions of the offseason for the Blue Devils, but he's off to a rough start through four games.
Blackwell had his second game of the year with just three points against SIUE, and host 1-of-7 from the floor. Worse is that it appears to be affecting the rest of his game. He recorded one assist, and that was the only other notch in the box score.
For the year, Blackwell is now averaging 9.5 points per game on 34/29/67 shooting splits.
It's hard to see this early-season slump continuing for much longer, considering he's a proven scorer at the high-major level, but the level of concern in Durham is certainly beginning to increase.
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