Duke handled UNLV without issue thanks to a big game from Grayson Allen.
Clearly UNLV came into this game with a severe talent deficit but what could have been a 30 point half time lead was trimmed to 16 with a barrage of 3 point shots by the Runnin Rebels. The second half saw a complete destruction of UNLV from Duke, with Duke outscoring UNLV 52-19. With all the talk being about Luke Kennard, Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles and with a lot Duke fans calling for Grayson Allen to rest – Grayson Allen had other plans. Allen lit up the UNLV defense for two halves, scoring a game high 34 points. Allen electrified fans with high flying dunks but also hit well from beyond the arc. Allen was 12 of 16 from the field and 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. Allen’s 34 points was a career high and put to rest a lot of the talk of him having an off year.
Duke also got, but barely needed, secondary scoring from Jayson Tatum who scored 13 on 5-11 shooting, Tatum also pulled down 5 rebounds, dishes 3 assists and added 2 steals and 2 blocks. Amile Jefferson added another double-double for the Blue Devils scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. In addition to being the high man on the boards Jefferson led Duke with 5 assists. Luke Kennard added 16 on 6 of 12 shooting, adding 4 assists and 5 rebounds to Duke’s total.
Picking apart this performance from Duke is not the easiest thing in the world because Duke was dominant. Duke came back from halftime having lost the rebounding battle and shooting poorly from 3 and course corrected.
The Good:
Fixing the halftime deficits and overwhelming UNLV.
Duke forced 21 turnovers and scored 22 points off of those turnovers.
Only allowed 1 double figure scorer.
The Bad:
Duke losing the first half rebounding battle by 3.
Allowing UNLV to shoot nearly 50% from 3 point range in the first half
