Duke improves effort for bounce-back win
Blue Devils struggle offensively against Notre Dame, but make up for it with hustle plays that were lacking in loss to UNC
DURHAM – No, this wasn’t the fire-breathing performance from Duke you might have been expecting.
But looking for Duke to fire on every cylinder and win by 40 was perhaps a bridge too far against a Notre Dame team keen on muddying things up.
So, the Blue Devils will take the improved effort and the 71-53 win over the visiting Irish on Wednesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“Just coming out with more energy, more effort, it’s all we needed,” freshman Jared McCain said. “We’re talented enough, we have enough shot-making, creating. It’s just playing hard. It’s simple but sometimes people don’t do it.”
Duke (17-5, 8-3 ACC) didn’t do it on Saturday night in a loss at UNC. Coach Jon Scheyer didn’t mince words after that one, lamenting his team’s effort and hustle leading to 15-20 points for the Tar Heels in a game decided by nine.
Those hustle and extra-effort plays were sprinkled in against Notre Dame (7-16, 2-10). They’re evident in the 15 turnovers by the Irish, at least eight of which were live-ball turnovers, and in the rebounding department, where Duke held a 43-35 edge and had a season-high 16 offensive rebounds.
“I just thought it was a great team effort, really good response,” Scheyer said.
The most evident part of Scheyer searching for more effort could be seen in the first 7½ minutes, during which Scheyer subbed in four players — guards Caleb Foster and Jaylen Blakes and forwards Ryan Young and Sean Stewart. TJ Power entered a few minutes later as the fifth sub, rounding out Duke’s available scholarship players.
Foster scored 13 points, matching Mark Mitchell for the team high. Young had six points and five rebounds, playing 16 minutes in part because of Kyle Filipowski’s foul-limited minutes.
Stewart might have supplied the most energy off the bench, though. The bouncy freshman had four points, five rebounds and three steals, and it was his sequence in the first half of a block at the rim and alley-oop on the other end that elicited a frenzied reaction from the home crowd.
The lob came from Foster, who saw Stewart running to the rim with 5-11 guard Markus Burton as the only defender in the lane.
“That’s that chemistry we’ve been creating,” Foster said. “We’ve been together too long. I knew he was going to get it, I (saw) Burton down there and I knew Burton couldn’t jump up there with Sean.”
For Scheyer, it wasn’t just that sequence that made the play impressive, but it was that Stewart did so after missing a couple of free throws on Duke’s previous possession.
“He’s mad at himself, he misses the two free throws,” Scheyer said. “It was next-play mentality. … He gets the block and the dunk, we don’t have anybody that can do that.”
If you were expecting to see a Duke player dive on a loose ball in the first 90 seconds, that’d be understandable after Saturday night.
It also didn’t come to fruition — though that had more to do with lack of opportunity than lack of effort.
After ND led 5-3, Duke scored the next 17 points. The Irish missed 10 straight shots and committed four turnovers in that span, which included Stewart’s block-alley-oop combo, and Duke’s lead stayed above eight for the rest of the game.
“I think we responded well from the UNC game, I think we did a good job of outworking those guys tonight,” Filipowski said. “There were a couple of times where they were about to make a run and they could’ve cut it from 11 to five, and we didn’t let that happen.”
Tyrese Proctor had a nice explosion in the first half, scoring seven points and dishing to Young for a layup in a span of about 3½ minutes. The last three of those points came on a smooth 3-pointer with 2:04 before halftime, giving Duke a 33-21 lead.
Duke committed two turnovers in the last two minutes and didn’t score, with ND scoring twice, putting the halftime score at 33-25.
The Blue Devils have struggled in end-of-first-half scenarios lately, which seemingly shifts into the primary focal point after solving the effort issues.
“Something we’ve done so well over the years here,” Scheyer said, “but even earlier in the season, we were closing halves so well. We have to figure it out.”
TIP-INS: Duke had nine turnovers, seven of which came in the first half. The Irish scored 10 points off those first-half turnovers; they only had two points off the two second-half giveaways. … Mitchell had a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds. He has three double-doubles in his career and two are against ND; Duke also went to 27-3 when he scores at least 10 points. … Power was the only Duke player whose plus-minus was negative, at minus-3. He didn’t record a stat in his 3½ minutes on the court. … Burton scored a game-high 19 points for ND, but he took 17 shots and didn’t attempt a free throw.