Jon Scheyer was trying to send a message to Isaiah Evans, and it was received loud and clear by the Duke basketball sophomore.
As the Blue Devils led 35-29 at halftime against Pittsburgh, Evans was on the bench to start the second half. He played ten minutes to start the game and scored seven points as Duke was already shorthanded due to the absence of Pat Ngongba with a hand injury.
But Scheyer wanted more.
Since shooting 4-of-8 from 3-point range against SMU on January 10, Evans has been in a rut. He’s only connected on 11-of-43 (25.5-percent) attempts from downtown and at times it has hurt Duke’s offense despite its winning ways.
However, against the Panthers he took the benching in the second half to heart and left his mark on the floor.
After halftime, Evans didn’t miss. He made all five of his shot attempts, four of which were from 3-point range. He finished the game with a team-high 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 5-of-6 from 3-point range as Duke won 70-54.
It was the most 3-pointers he made in a game since connecting on six against Florida State on January 3.
Duke also saw Caleb Foster turn in his best performance in quite some time without Ngongba on the floor, ending the night with 14 points, a career-high eight rebounds, and five assists.
It was Foster’s most points scored since the early January matchup in Louisville.
The absence of Duke’s starting center had no impact on Cameron Boozer who turned in another stellar showing of 17 points, ten rebounds, and four assists.
The Blue Devils were still able to out-rebound Pitt by 14, 37-23, without Ngongba on the floor and held the Panthers to 9-for-33 shooting from 3-point range.
Jon Scheyer said after the game that it’s unclear if Pat Ngongba will be able to play when Duke takes the court on Saturday afternoon against Clemson, but it was “unrealistic” to expect him to play on Tuesday against the Panthers.