One never can tell how a young team is going to respond to fatigue but with the Blue Devils on their 3rd game in 6 days Coach Jon Scheyer would find out. Wake Forest also entered Cameron on short rest having playing their 3rd game in 7 days. Suffice it to say, neither team brought their best stuff. The Blue Devils did have just enough to get by the Demon Deacons 77-69 but it was not pretty.
The Blue Devils could not get out of their own way turning the ball over 13 times leading to 15 points for Wake. 7 of Duke’s 13 turnovers were committed by their backcourt. Turnovers coupled with inexplicable decisions in shot selection kept the game closer than it probably had a right to be. Neither team eclipsed the 30% threshold from beyond the arc with Duke shooting 28% and Wake at 23%. Wake also uncharacteristically left some points at the free throw line – a team that normally shoots 80%, Wake shot under 70% against the Blue Devils from the charity stripe.
After shooting a paltry 35.5% from the field in the first half the Blue Devils did turn up the offensive sliders and shot a much more Duke-like 62.5 from the field going 4-11 from 3 during that half.
It wasn’t all bad for the Blue Devils with Mark Mitchell having another phenomenal game offensively to lead the Blue Devils. Mitchell scored a game high 23 points shooting 64.3% from the field and adding 8 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Kyle Filipowski, despite cold shooting from 3, scored 21 points on 8-14 shooting overall notching a double-double with 10 boards and 2 blocks.
Freshman Jared McCain notched yet another double-double scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 boards in the win, McCain also dished 4 assists. It’s McCains 5 game with double-digit rebounds this season and his 3rd double-double this season. Senior guard Jeremy Roach led Duke in dimes, dishing 5 for the game and scoring 12 points on 5-8 shooting.
