Duke needed a big victory over a lesser opponent and Sunday night they got just that. But they sure had to get through an ugly first half to do it. The Blue Devils used a poor shooting night from Boston College and another strong showing from Seth Curry and Austin Rivers to put away the Eagles 75-50 and improve to 23-4 (10-2 ACC).
This was not a game of beauty especially in the first half. Boston College started out hot going 5 for 5 from the floor but then they went colder than ice. Duke wasn't much better though they attacked inside early to open up things for their shooters.
Duke was able to pull away a bit after trailing 13-7 early in the first half and managed a nine point lead going into the break on a Miles Plumlee follow up dunk at the buzzer.
That would prove to be the only buzzer beater that the Blue Devils would need as they quickly built on their lead in the second half and never looked back.
Miles was the better Plumlee as Mason was limited to 17 minutes after picking up three early fouls in the first half. He finished with only three points and three rebounds. Miles picked up the slack scoring nine points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Things were so bad for BC that late in the second half Duke had more rebounds than the Eagles had points.
Curry (18 points) Rivers (16 points) and Andre Dawkins (13 points) lead the Blue Devils in scoring as Duke shot 10-22 from behind the three point line. Duke also out rebounded the Eagles 42-20.
That rebounding was perhaps the big difference in the game. Duke used its size advantage and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds which gave the Blue Devils 12 additional possessions.
This is a good win for Duke but yet again the suffered a slow start against a lesser opponent. Fortunately for the Blue Devils Boston College was a bit too undermanned to put up much of a fight in the second half.
Still there are some positives that can be taken namely the continued solid play of Curry and Rivers who I feel need to step up into the leadership role with their play. They've been solid over the last few games and need to keep that up.
For the first time in a while, the Blue Devils didn't have a team shoot greater than 40 percent against them. So maybe there defense is getting better, or maybe BC's offense is just that bad.
This was an important victory because it keeps Duke tied for first place in the ACC headed into their big show down this week with Florida State.
The Blue Devils will look to avenge the earlier loss at home to the Seminoles and perhaps make it a two team race for the regular season title.
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