Duke Handles the Irish 75-65 - SCACCHoops.com

Duke Handles the Irish 75-65

by DukeBlogger.com

Posted: 12/17/2020 6:05:05 AM


Game Central

Game Recap

It was hard to predict how the Duke Blue Devils would respond to missing one of it’s top freshman players, coming off of a loss at home to Illinois and playing it’s first road game of the year which was also it’s first ACC game – all firsts for the freshman class. Notre Dame was the older team, the better shooting team (at least coming into the game) and they had the home court advantage but the Blue Devils took control of the game early and never really looked back. Duke was methodical, consistent, efficient and in constant motion offensively. If I told you prior to the start of the game that Notre Dame would shoot 50% in the first half you would have probably thought Duke would be down double digits – but the Blue Devils shot 55% including 5-10 from 3 point range in the first half. The Blue Devils rode 10 points from Matthew Hurt and 8 from freshman Jeremy Roach to a 7 point lead at the half. Hurt, doing his best Dirk Nowitzki impersonation was 4-9 with 2 rebounds and 2 assists in the first 20.

Duke didn’t let up, pushing their second half lead to as much as 17. After shooting 50% from 3 point range in the first half, Duke shot 60% from 3 in the second half. Matthew Hurt followed up his 8 point first half with 10 in the second half finishing the game with 18 points on 8-17 shooting to lead the Blue Devils. DJ Steward added 16 points for the Blue Devils playing 29 minutes and playing with what looked like a renewed confidence and assertiveness. The freshman guard hit 3-4 from 3 point range and added 7 rebounds and 2 steals. Jaemyn Brakefield may be the biggest surprise of the season so far for the Blue Devils, the freshman has played like anything but a freshmen. Brakefield has been instant offense for Duke and added 10 points hitting both of his 3 point attempts and going 4-8 overall. Brakefield was all over the floor for Duke taking a charges rebounding the basketball, dishing a nice assist to a cutting DJ Steward.

One big difference in this game for the Blue Devils was guard play. Turnovers had plagued the Blue Devils who were averaging 16 per game coming into Wednesday night. Tonight the starting guards were only attributed with 3 turnovers and Duke as a team only coughed up the ball 8 times. In addition to better valuing of the basketball the guards provided some scoring punch for the Blue Devils with Jeremy Roach following up his 13 points against Illinois with 14 points against the Fighting Irish. Jordan Goldwire added 9 points and 2 assists.

 

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