No. 1 Duke passes a toughness test to stay unbeaten
Win or lose, Duke’s still-developing basketball team was going to learn plenty about itself from Friday night’s experience at Madison Square Garden.
Tre Jones, ever the leader as the only non-freshman to start for No. 1 Duke in its two games over the last two nights here, made sure the Blue Devils learned without tasting defeat.
Sensing an opportunity, the sophomore guard’s heady steal and layup as Georgetown tried to in-bound the ball to open the second half put the Blue Devils ahead for good in what became an 81-73 win.
“It was a tie game at halftime,” Jones said. “The way we started the game was tough to come back from, especially with the atmosphere out there with a lot of Georgetown fans in the crowd. Knowing we had to come out to a strong start to the second half, I just saw they were being a little lazy to start out the second half. I just tried to give us a little spark when we needed it.”
That play helped Duke break from a 33-all tie. The Blue Devils scored six unanswered points over the first 57 seconds after halftime, two on Jones layups and another on Vernon Carey’s dunk off a Jones pass in transition.
With that, a Blue Devils’ team that had been dazed when Georgetown grabbed an 11-point first-half lead had not only steadied itself, it had shoved back to take control.
While Duke is the nation’s No. 1 team, it is far from a finished product.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski has used four different starting lineups while the Blue Devils have won their first six games. He continually uses a 10-man rotation.
He knows he can count on a strong, often suffocating defensive effort from his team. But when Georgetown hit 11 of its first 18 shots, including 4 of 6 3-pointers, to lead 29-18, that rock-solid part of Duke’s game showed cracks.
The Hoyas had plenty of people cheering for them in a building where they’ve played so many memorable games over the last 40 years.
Against that backdrop, Duke needed toughness to take over.
“We felt like we didn’t play that well in the first half, because we didn’t,” Duke freshman forward Cassius Stanley said. “Coach got on us. He said, look, it’s not about x’s and o’s, It’s not even about playing hard. It’s going to be a fight and we took the fight mentality. They came out throwing blows and we were throwing blows. It was very physical and a very tough game. We played together and got the win.”
Duke battled back to tie the game at halftime and Krzyzewski challenged the Blue Devils to force Hoyas coach Patrick Ewing to call the first time out of the second half.
Jones’ plays in the first minute accomplished that.
He and Stanley spearheaded Duke’s offensive surge over the final 20 minutes.
Jones scored 11 of his 13 points in the second half, impacting the game positively for Duke despite his 3 of 13 shooting overall.
Stanley, limited to only one point in eight minutes in the first half due to his two fouls, poured in 20 in the second half to finish with a team-best 21. He made all three of his 3-pointers in the second half as the Blue Devils, who haven’t been a great shooting team this season, found some perimeter accuracy.
Vernon Carey played a huge role once again. The rugged 6-10 Duke freshman center scored 20 points with 10 rebounds.
Just as important, he drew 10 fouls from the Hoyas. Part of Duke’s plan was to get Georgetown’s 7-0 center Omer Yurtseven, the former N.C. State player, in foul trouble.
It worked as Yurtseven fouled four times and played just 23 minutes. It’s a good thing because he still scored 21 points and blocked four shots.
Playing with toughness over the first 15 minutes of the second half, Duke worked its way to 77-63 with 4:59 to play.
The Blue Devils didn’t make another shot from the field, missing their final five because, hey, this is still a team finding its way.
But, after they Hoyas’ cut the deficit to 77-73 with 42.2 seconds left, Jones stopped the bleeding with two free throws with 25.9 seconds to play.
Stanley hit two more free throws with 16 seconds left.
They were tough shots in a tough situation and both players came through.
Duke learned the importance of toughness and still came out with a win, an experience that will help the Blue Devils as the season rolls on.
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 11:51 PM.