Duke basketball freshmen shine again in romp against Army

It's the talk of the nation nearly every season and the Duke basketball freshmen are continuing to impress for the Blue Devils.

After Kon Knueppel and Cooper Flagg shined in the season opener against Maine, rookie center Khaman Maluach took his turn to dominante on Friday night against Army. The South Sudan native finished the 100-58 victory with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

“I just went out there and did my job. Get rebounds – that’s all I had in my head," he said after the game.

"Get every offensive rebound or every defensive rebound.”

His other freshmen teammates also chipped in with major contributions, including a first half double-double from Cooper Flagg with 13 points and 11 rebounds as he battled cramping for the second straight game.

Knueppel had 15 points and the Blue Devils saw six different players reach double figures for the second straight game.

Duke started slow from the field, making just 35-percent (14-of-40) of its shots in the first half and more than half of its attempts were from 3-point range (7-of-22), but caught fire in the second half and outscored the Black Knights by 19 points.

The Blue Devils connected on 67.7-percent of its attempts (21-of-31) after halftime, including 10-of-16 from 3-point range.

Flagg did not score in the second half, only attempting one shot in less than six minutes of action.

Things will get a lot more difficult for Duke in the next two weeks, playing three ranked teams in the next four games. Things start in Atlanta on Tuesday night (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) in the State Farm Champions Classic against No. 23 Kentucky.

The Blue Devils head to the west coast next Friday, November 22 to play No. 10 Arizona and a showdown against No. 1 Kansas on Tuesday, November 26.