Duke overwhelms Boston College 75-50

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass -- Wedged in between memorable wins over North Carolina and N.C. State and an impending trip to Florida State, there will be little about Duke’s 75-50 triumph over Boston College on Sunday that will stand out when folks are reminiscing about the season.

The Blue Devils are good. The Eagles aren’t.

Duke played well. Boston College didn’t.

And that was pretty much that.

In an unsightly game that failed to generate much in the way of excitement, Duke ground down an overmatched Eagles squad with a strong defensive effort. The 50 points were the least the Blue Devils have allowed in a game this year.

The victory was also the Blue Devils’ most decisive of the ACC season.

“Overall, I’m pleased,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I was worried about tonight’s game, especially in anticipation of the Florida State game on Thursday night. At this time of the year, a lot of strange things happen in college basketball.”

With the excitement of the previous 10 days and Thursday’s game at Florida State that could decide the ACC’s regular season championship, Krzyzewski was worried the strange things would involve his team. He twice watched tape of the Eagles’ upset of the Seminoles from last week and made sure his players absorbed its message.

“I said, ‘These kids can beat us,’” Krzyzewski said. “I wasn’t trying to tell myself fairy tales or anything like that.”

Instead, the fifth-ranked Blue Devils (23-4, 10-2) put together one of their strongest efforts of the season, especially on the defensive end.

Boston College (8-19, 3-10) actually started the game by hitting its first five attempts from the floor to take a 13-7 lead with 16:34 remaining. At that point, Krzyzewski changed the Blue Devils’ ball screen defense, opting for an approach where Duke stepped up aggressively after screens instead of playing more of a zone.

The next time the Eagles made a basket from the floor after the switch was with 2:24 left in the half. After its hot start, Boston College made only 10 of its 39 final shots (25.6 percent).

“To be a really good team, you have to draw the line and times and say, ‘That can’t be the type of game we’re playing every game -- we can't come out really poorly for the first half,’” Duke junior Ryan Kelly said. “You have to make a stand early. We didn’t even really do that right from the jump. But by four minutes in, our defense was really good.”

Just like in Thursday’s win over N.C. State, Seth Curry and Austin Rivers led the way for the Blue Devils, finishing with 18 and 16 points, respectively. Duke outrebounded Boston College 45-21.

“It felt good to come in and get a lead and do what we were supposed to do from early on in the game,” Curry said. “After the first minutes, we kind of imposed our will and we were able to run away with the score.”

Duke built its lead as high as 28 points on two different occasions as it ran roughshod after halftime.

The only time this ACC season when Duke enjoyed a second half that was completely stress-free was against Wake Forest – the Blue Devils beat the Demon Deacons by 18 on Jan. 19.

More often than not, Duke has found itself in close games when it may have been expected to cruise.

After finishing their demolition of the Eagles, it didn’t take long for the Blue Devils’ focus to switch to Florida State.

Just about every player made mention of Thursday’s showdown – the Seminoles, Blue Devils and North Carolina are all tied for first in the conference, and Duke wants to avenge Florida State’s Jan. 21 win.

“We really wanted to get this road win coming into the big game vs. Florida State,” Rivers said. “That’s what we did tonight.”