Duke’s game against Niagara started with a sweet moment as Mike Krzyzewski came to the court and met with his former players and teammates Jon Scheyer and Greg Paulus and you could tell there was a lot
of respect and affection between the three of them.
It was a nice thing to see, but it didn’t spare Niagara from getting spanked as Scheyer’s team hammered the Purple Eagles, 100-42.
And here’s something you won’t see every game: every rotation player for Duke scored and had at least one rebound and one assist. Jack Scott did too. Only deep reserves Ifeanyi Ufochukwu and Cameron Sheffield failed to record one of each.
Unlike most games this season, it didn’t take Duke long to get going: the Blue Devils went up 3-0 and then 10-3 and never looked back.
Duke put six players in double figures. Patrick Ngongba had 17 points, including 10-11 from the line. He also had 8 rebounds and 3 two assists.
Cameron Boozer had a somewhat quiet night by his standards with 14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
Isaiah Evans finished with 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Nik Khamenia had 12 points s well, hitting 4-5 three pointers. He also had 3 boards and 5 assists.
Dame Sarr got 5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals and a block.
Cayden Boozer nearly outscored brother Cameron, racking up 11 points in 17 minutes, along with an assist and 2 rebounds. Caleb Foster got 10 points, 1 rebound and 3 assists.
Maliq Brown had 7 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist but as usual, you can’t fully measure his value by standard statistics. Darren Harris had 5 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists.
And Jack Scott, in 6 minutes, finished with 3 points, 4 rebounds and an assist.
It’s fair to say that Niagara was outmatched, but even so, Duke played well. Overall the Blue Devils shot 17-33 on threes (52%) and 32-55 overall (58%) and assisted on 24 of 32 made shots.
Duke shot well from the foul line too, hitting 19-24 there.
It wasn’t just offense. Niagara had a lot of trouble doing, well, much of anything. At the beginning of the game, there were several possessions where Paulus’s team got to the end of the shot clock and had to throw something up. Trenton Walters was an effective scorer, getting 15 points, almost entirely on 3 point shots (just one of his 5 made shots wasn’t a three).
No one else shot particularly well. Will Shortt hit 2-2 but that was it. Justin Hawkins? He was 1-7. Reggie Prudhomme? Finished 1-4. Justin Page shot 2-10.
The bench was just 2-14 collectively.
Toss in 17 turnovers and losing rebounding 20-40, and there just wasn’t much hope for Niagara.
Still, they played hard and together and honorably. All of that spoke well of Paulus’s program.
Realistically, there was almost no chance that Niagara could pull off an upset at Duke without Duke helping like, say, Kentucky helped Louisville and Michigan State recently. And that was highly unlikely in Cameron Friday.
There was a lot of good signs in this game. We saw Evans, again, willing to take it to the basket. We saw Foster continuing to be aggressive. Maliq Brown continues to round into shape and Cayden Boozer appears to be getting in the groove.
Individually and collectively, Duke showed improvement, and a good thing too.
Not to look past Howard on Sunday, but after that, the Blue Devils will see #21 Arkansas, #10 Florida and #17 Michigan State and, after Lipscomb, will see #15 Texas Tech.
It’s a brutal stretch and every bit of improvement will help.
Notes – both Khamenia and Cayden Boozer looked much more comfortable…Dame Sarr is still erratic offensively but on defense, he’s becoming a terror…Cameron Boozer is also emerging as a much better defender than we expected…Ngongba was one foul shot from a perfect shooting night…one of the best moments of the night came after time ran out in the second half as Paulus’s young son joined the handshake line and shook hands with every Duke player…
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