Duke Dominance On Display At The Garden

 

Sion James cashing in a layup at the 7:44 mark of the first half to give Duke a 35-20 lead. Photo by Jason Schott.

The Duke Blue Devils put on quite a show at a raucous Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, as they took care of the Illinois Fighting Illini, 110-67.

Duke, the No.3 ranked team in the country, improved to 24-3 on the season, and they controlled this one from the start.

It was 18-12 Duke eight minutes, and they followed that up with a 12-4 run to make it 30-16 on a Kon Knueppel layup off a turnover at the 9:08 mark of the first half.

That was just the start of Duke's total domination, as they would eventually go up as much, as 23 points, at 50-27, on a Khaman Maluach fast break layup at the 3:16 mark.

Duke took a 54-37 lead into halftime, backed by a balanced scoring attack of 10 points apiece from Tyrese Proctor and Isaiah Evans, nine points from Sion James, eight points each from Khaman Maluach and Kon Knueppel, and six points from the highly-touted Cooper Flagg.

In the first half, Duke shot 54.5 percent, or 18-33, from the field, and 50%, or 5-10, from behind the arc.

Illinois shot 44.1 percent, or 15-34, from the field, in the opening 20 minutes, but that was undercut by the 0-16 from the three-point flag.

The second half was more of the same, as Duke opened it with a 9-0 burst capped by a Flagg dunk that made it 63-37 at 17:39. That would expand to a 34-point lead, 81-47, on on a three-point play by Maluach at 10:15.

That eventually turned into a 40-point lead, 95-55, on a Caleb Foster three-pointer with 5:54 left.

Duke's 110 points was a season-high, eclipsing the 106 points they put up against Stanford last Saturday. They won that game against their new ACC opponent, 106-70. The only other instance they hit the 100-point plateau was against Army West Point, 100-58, on November 8. (Pete Hegseth will have them in the gym a bit more now to make sure that never happens again.)

Duke shot an astonishing 55.6 percent, or 40-72, from the field, and 12-23 from behind the arc.

Evans, who came off the bench, led the way for Duke, with 17 points on 5-8 from the field, including 3-5 on three-pointers, with two assists and two rebounds. 

Flagg had 16 points, including 10 in the second half, on 5-10 from the field, and made his one three-point attempt, with seven rebounds and five assists. Kneuppel finished with 15 points (6-9 FG, 1-2 threes), with four rebounds and two assists. Maluach had 13 points (6-9 FG), seven rebounds, and two assists. Proctor had 12 points (4-9 FG, 1-3 threes), with four assists, three rebounds, and a steal. Caleb Foster had 12 points off the bench, all in the second half, on a near-perfect 5-6 from the field, and 2-2 on threes, with an assist.