Analysis: Four observations from No. 4 Duke’s 104-40 win over Evansville

The biggest question for No. 4 Duke before its game against Evansville was how it would respond after its first loss of the season. And whether the defensive woes that plagued the Blue Devils in previous games this season would be fixed after 11 days off.

But after a 104-40 shellacking over Evansville on Wednesday, the questions no longer needed answers. While Evansville (10-3) was undermanned, Duke (12-1) took advantage and dominated on both sides of the ball.

The Blue Devils forced the Purple Aces, who were without their top two scorers, to 21 turnovers.

“They didn’t have all the ball-handlers that they can have, so that lent itself to that,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “But the fact is, we played hard. I thought we played really good defense.”

Duke’s 64-point win was its biggest of the season.

Here are four observations from the game:

Duke played lock-down defense on Wednesday. During the last few practices, Duke had focused primarily on defense.

For an eight-minute stretch late in the first half, Duke held Evansville without a field goal, and the Blue Devils proceeded to go on a 21-1 run. That pushed Duke’s already 12-point lead, to 32 points.

Duke turned the 21 turnovers it forced into 39 points. It also forced Evansville to shoot 30 percent overall from the floor and 36 percent from behind the 3-point line. Prior to the game, the Purple Aces were the best 3-point shooting team in the country, percentage-wise at 49.4 percent. They take on average about 14 3-point shots per game.

Duke took better care of the basketball. Turnovers had been one of Duke’s issues in previous games. A couple of late turnovers in Duke’s game against Boston College might have cost it that game. But Duke took care of the ball on Wednesday.

The Blue Devils had 32 assists to only five turnovers. Their two points guards – Trevon Duval (8 assists, 1 turnover) and Jordan Goldwire (7 assists) – combined for 15 assists and only one turnover. No player had more than one turnover.

You can’t leave Wendell Carter Jr. open. Evansville tried to double team freshman forward Marvin Bagley III in the post, which would ultimately leave Carter open at the top of the key or elsewhere. Carter took advantage of those open opportunities and knocked down four of his seven 3-pointers. He was 9-for-15 overall and finished with a career-high 27 points.

When asked what he thought of Evansville leaving Carter open, Bagley and sophomore center Marques Bolden, who sat beside each other in the locker room, shook their heads.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Bagley said. “That was weird. I told him every time they do that, shoot it. And he shot it, let it go, and he was on fire tonight. He made them. It was his night.”

Krzyzewski also said Carter was a good shooter.

“He’s a good basketball player,” Krzyzewski said. “What I like is when he was hitting, our guys kept wanting him to shoot. You could see there was a lot of joy there.”

Sophomore forward Javin DeLaurier missed Wednesday’s game with a tight hamstring. Krzyzewski said if they had to play him, they could have, but the coaching staff wanted to be cautious. DeLaurier had missed the past couple of practices because of the issue.

“He had this a little bit early in the year,” Krzyzewski said. “Some of these things happen because you get dehydrated. Especially during exams with different hours.”

Duke will have 10 more days before its next game against Florida State at home. The players will get to go home for the Christmas holidays. Krzyzewski said he expects DeLaurier to be back in action when they return.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 11:23 PM with the headline "Analysis: Four observations from No. 4 Duke’s 104-40 win over Evansville."