Duke basketball shows no signs of rust in return as breakout star continues to shine

The Duke basketball team returned the court in a big way on Saturday afternoon as its freshman star continued to shine.

Queens v Duke
Queens v Duke | Grant Halverson/GettyImages

The Duke basketball team, coming off its biggest victory of the season, had to wait 10 days to return to the court and did not disappoint when the ball was tipped.

Tyrese Proctor, who injured his ankle in a loss to Georgia Tech on December 2, made his return but came off the bench in a limited role that saw him play 18 minutes and add nine points, one rebound, and four assists to the 106-69 winning cause over Queens.

Proctor's minutes were split evenly with nine in each half.

However, it was freshman star Jared McCain that continued his hot stretch that led the No. 16 Blue Devils (9-3, 0-1 ACC).

The rookie came up with two clutch buckets in Duke's win over Baylor to tie a career-high with 21 points and he broke that mark against the Royals with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, making 4-of-9 attempts from 3-point range.

McCain also added four rebounds and three assists as 17 points came in the first half on 7-of-10 shooting but was limited to just seven minutes in the second half due to the lopsided score.

He is averaging 19.7 points per game in Duke's last four contests, which has coincided with the four game winning streak the Blue Devils are on.

The shooting display overshadows the outstanding performance from Kyle Filipowski, who ended the day with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Duke's entire starting five, with the exception of Jeremy Roach, scored at least 10 points.

The Blue Devils shot 58-percent from the floor and its defense was able to force Queens into 19 turnovers, which resulted in a whopping 33 points.

Jon Scheyer's team will now fully enter ACC play with the Syracuse Orange (10-3, 1-1 ACC) traveling to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night (9:00 p.m. ET, ESPN) for the only matchup of the regular season between the two teams.

Schedule

Schedule