Duke keeps fine-tuning in blowout of Bucknell

DURHAM – The range of emotions for Jon Scheyer on Friday night covered him being angry enough to get the first technical of his career — as a head coach, at least — and his heart dropping when his All-American collapsed with a twisted ankle, pounding the floor as he covered his eyes.

And that was just in the first half of a 90-60 win over Bucknell at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

To get to the most-important part: Kyle Filipowski returned to the game in the second half after he needed assistance in leaving the court with 4:04 left in the first half.

“I mean, look, he’s not a guy that usually stays down,” Scheyer said. “When that happens, you’re thinking for the game, of course. But you don’t know if it’s long-term or whatever it is. I’m just thankful he’s OK.”

Though there was nervous energy in the home crowd, his teammates knew better.

“My heart dropped,” freshman Caleb Foster said. “But Flip is a soldier, so I knew he’d be all right.”

Filipowski made a move to post up and his right ankle buckled, sending the 7-footer to the ground grabbing at his foot. Men’s basketball trainer Jose Fonseca was the first to Filipowski, followed quickly by Scheyer, who motioned for help from the bench.

Stanley Borden and Neal Begovich helped Filipowski off the court and back to Duke’s locker room. Filipowski was unavailable for interviews after the game.

Filipowski didn’t come out for halftime warmups with the rest of the Blue Devils but followed shortly after. He jogged back onto the court and appeared to wince, but progressed from taking set shots in the paint to 3s while jumping.

He started the second half on the court and finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

The start of the second half was when Duke (3-1) blew this game open, and the ninth-ranked Blue Devils did so by scoring 23 points on their first 11 possessions. That ballooned a 15-point halftime lead into a 31-point lead after about 6½ minutes.

Eight of Duke’s first nine field goals in the second half was assisted, and for the night Duke had 23 assists on 32 field goals — only committing seven turnovers.

Combined with 17 assists on 22 field goals earlier this week against Michigan State, 40 of Duke’s last 54 field goals have been assisted.

“We could get them even higher,” Foster said of the assist rate. “That’s something that we talked about the past week and we put it into action.”

Foster led Duke with six assists. Sophomore Mark Mitchell scored a career-high 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, while Tyrese Proctor added 13 points.

Jared McCain scored Duke’s first points, marking his first points since the Arizona game. He was 0-for-5 against Michigan State. He caught fire in the second half, which was when he scored 14 of his 17 points.

McCain also had 10 rebounds, notching Duke’s first double-double of the season and helping the Blue Devils to a 46-27 rebounding advantage. Duke outscored Bucknell 23-0 on second-chance points and 34-20 on points in the paint.

Along with ball movement, Scheyer’s concern after the loss to Arizona a week ago was with rebounding and interior defense.

“We have good guys that want to coached, want to be pushed,” Scheyer said. “So, it’s up to us to challenge them and do that every day. They’ve responded in every game because I haven’t been necessarily the most positive.

“I’ve been very honest. Like, for where we want to get to, here are the things we need to do.”

And on that note, there was one more part of this game to address:

Scheyer was assessed a technical foul by official Brent Hampton with 12:15 left in the first half. That was Scheyer’s first technical; this was his 40th game as Duke’s head coach, but his 500th total as a player, assistant and head coach.

“I wanted to have something that’s memorable from it,” Scheyer joked of getting the tech on his milestone night. “No, for me, I’m always going to go to bat for my guys. I was fired up because Sean (Stewart) went to the basket hard, Mark went to the basket hard and — I’m sure I’ll have some texts about it and that’s how it goes.”

The tech seemed to get Bucknell’s Jack Forrest into rhythm — he made both free throws and a jumper on the possession, the start of his 15-points-in-four-plus-minutes barrage. Over that span, he outscored Duke 15-14, as Bucknell (1-4) stayed within striking distance for most of the first half.

Duke scored the last 11 points of the first half, with Proctor and Jeremy Roach hitting 3s, to take a 44-29 lead into halftime — though at that time, general focus in Cameron was on the status of Filipowski’s right ankle.

TIP-INS: Sophomore center Christian Reeves was out because of a right ankle injury. He was wearing a walking boot and not in uniform. … Duke only made more than 13 3s in one game last season, which was against Bellarmine (were 14 of 35). The Blue Devils also made 13 against Syracuse. … This was the first of three games in the Blue Devil Challenge. Duke plays La Salle on Tuesday and Southern Indiana on Friday as the other games in the event. … Seven turnovers is a season-low for Duke, while 23 assists is a season-high. … Duke is now 17-1 in games that Mitchell scores in double figures. His previous career high for points was 18, which came in the season opener last year.