No. 3 Duke wallops Miami behind Barrett, Reddish
With March having arrived, No. 3 Duke clashed with a team heading nowhere Saturday and summarily dispatched struggling Miami.
RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish each scored 19 points as the Blue Devils built a 28-point halftime lead and rolled to an 87-57 ACC basketball win over the Hurricanes at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Playing its third consecutive game without injured freshman forward Zion Williamson (sprained knee), Duke (25-4, 13-3 ACC) bounced back with authority after losing 77-72 last Tuesday at No. 20 Virginia Tech.
The Blue Devils shot 57.1 percent, including 56.3 percent in the first half when they turned the game lopsided.
Junior center Marques Bolden added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Duke. Barrett made a run at his second triple-double of the season, finishing with 10 rebounds and seven assists to go with his 19 points.
Miami (12-16, 4-12 ACC) shot just 34.9 percent, turning the ball over 16 times. Duke recorded 10 steals.
Ebuka Izundu and Anthony Lawrence scored 15 points each for Miami.
Hurricanes sophomore guard Chris Lykes entered the game averaging 16.9 points per game, having scored 28 points against N.C. State, 27 against North Carolina and 26 against Wake Forest in ACC play this season.
But the 5-7 Lykes struggled with Duke’s Tre Jones guarding him. Lykes missed his first nine shots. He finished 1 of 15 from the field, missing all seven of his 3-pointers, to finish with four points with four turnovers. Jones recorded six steals for the Blue Devils.
The Hurricanes trailed 11-8 early on when Duke started to pull away.
Jack White’s 3-pointer not only ended his streak of 28 consecutive missed 3-point shots dating back to Jan. 12 at Florida State, but the basket started a 7-0 Duke run that also included dunks from Barrett and Bolden.
Anthony Mack’s 3-pointer for Miami stopped the Duke run but didn’t slow the Blue Devils rush to an easy win.
Duke rattled of five more points in a row to lead 23-11.
The Blue Devils lead was 29-16 after Sam Waardenburg’s 3-pointer with 5:20 left until halftime.
But Duke scored the game’s next 14 points as the Hurricanes went 4:14 without a point.
Barrett hit a running jumper and Bolden scored inside off a pass from Barrett.
After four free throws, two each from Barrett and Reddish, Bolden scored inside and added a free throw for a 40-16 Duke lead.
Reddish’s 3-pointer with 1:37 left until halftime put Duke up 43-16 and the Blue Devils took a 47-19 lead to intermission.
Duke closes the home portion of its schedule on Tuesday night against another struggling ACC team, Wake Forest (11-17, 4-12 ACC) before wrapping up the regular season against No. 5 North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Saturday night.
This story was originally published March 2, 2019 at 6:08 PM.