As we’ve seen more than once this season, Duke was not beautiful in the first half, but the Blue Devils locked down Cal in the second, winning 71-56.
The Bears played pretty well in the first half, going
up 13-7 and forcing 6 turnovers early before Duke really punched back. Cal did a nice job of controlling Cameron Boozer in the first half, holding him to just 4 points in the first half, but Isaiah Evans and Patrick Ngongba picked up the slack with 12 and 9 points respectively. Duke certainly wasn’t beautiful in the first half, but they were a little better than Cal.
And crucially, Duke never let Dai Dai Ames get untracked. At 6-2, Ames was looking at 6-5 Caleb Foster, 6-6 Isaiah Evans and 6-8 Dame Sarr every time he tried to shoot, and that’s a lot to overcome.
Lee Dort and John Camden both played well in the first half, with 8 apiece. Dort was highly effective inside while Camden hit a pair of threes and a two-pointer.
The crowd was primed for a tight game, perhaps taking a cue from Stanford’s upset of UNC minutes before Duke-Cal tipped off and it got one for awhile. After halftime though, things changed.
First, Cal began to build some serious foul trouble. Second, Cameron Boozer started to go into winning mode. And third, Duke really shut down the inside.
Dort would hit just one more shot. Milos Ilic had one in the first half and none in the second. And overall, Cal hit just 7 shots in the second half.
The first was Dort’s last, a dunk. The second was Ame’s first shot, a 15 footer. The third was Ames too, a 14 footer. Pippen got #4, then DeJuan Campbell got #5 with 11:47 to go.
Next basket?
Camden hit a three with 6:36 to play and by that time, Cal was down 51-62. The final basket came with 1:40 to play and Duke was up 71-54.
Essentially, Duke suffocated Cal in the second half. Cal scored 11 from the line and that kept them being blown out. Camden shot 4-6 and Dort was 5-8 but no one else of consequence shot well. Ames finished 3-11/0-2, Justin Pippen 2-11/1-5 and Chris Bell 2-12.
After his slow start, Boozer finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Evans finished with 17 points and a surprising 3 blocks. The only Californian on the squad, Nik Khamenia, had 10 points and 4 rebounds.
Look, Cal is much better than they were last season but this is not necessarily a great team. However, it’s a team that can challenge anyone in the league and has enough talent to pull off some upsets this season. Duke just gave them some difficult things to overcome.
Notes – Dort is a much stronger player than we remembered…Evans played with confidence and verve, especially when Boozer was struggling early…despite fan concerns, Duke is now 16-1 and the loss was by just 1 point…If you lined this team up you could easily pick out Scottie Pippen’s kid…he strongly resembles his dad…so far, the Boozer twins are winning in college much the way they did in high school…we knew that Evans would eventually start hitting more shots and now he’s playing like a guy who has been there before…but the best things are his other skills which have greatly improved…
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