It was everything behind the true meaning of college basketball – a monster of a team like Duke on the road against Army.
No neutral site or ‘buy’ game at home, a legit road game that so few college teams play.
There was the pageantry, honoring the career of Mike Krzyzewski pregame, the significance of playing the game on Veterans Day, and the electric atmosphere the cadets in attendance brought.
The Black Knights hung with the No. 5 Blue Devils for a majority of the first half, but Duke proved to be too big, fast, and physical ending the first half on a 12-2 run that led to a 115-59 victory.
The second half performance was pure dominance, holding Army (1-2) to 26.5-percent (9-of-34) shooting and outscoring the Black Knights by 36 points.
The Blue Devils (3-0) never trailed in the game after being paced by a combined 27 points and seven 3-pointers in the first half from Dame Sarr and Isaiah Evans.
“I thought it was a very business-like approach tonight,” Jon Scheyer explained. “They obviously played their [butts] off, they did a great job sharing the ball.”
“Very proud of the effort.”
It was the best game for Sarr in his short Duke career, finishing with 19 points after only scoring a total of ten points in Duke’s first two games, while Evans had 17 points.
Four different players finished with at least 15 points for the Blue Devils, including 15 points and nine rebounds from Cameron Boozer and 16 points and nine rebounds from Pat Ngongba.
The Blue Devils will return home and play Indiana State on Friday (7:00 p.m. ET, ACC Network) before returning to New York in a week for the Champions Classic on Tuesday night (9:00 p.m. ET, ESPN) inside Madison Square Garden against No. 25 Kansas.