What we learned about Duke in its basketball win over Campbell
The one thing No. 9 Duke hadn’t done well over the season’s first two games was shoot 3-pointers.
That changed, just enough, on Saturday night and the Blue Devils needed that long-range success to subdue Campbell.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Jeremy Roach and Joey Baker started a second-half run that pulled Duke away from a one-point game as the Blue Devils beat the Camels, 67-56, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Having made just 10 of 41 3-pointers (24.4%) while starting the season with wins over No. 10 Kentucky and Army West Point, Duke hit 9 of 23 (39.1%) against Campbell to remain unbeaten.
The Blue Devils (3-0) hit three 3-pointers during a 15-4 run midway through the second half that allowed them to build their first double-digit lead of the night.
Paolo Banchero scored 18 points to pace Duke while Wendell Moore added 15 and Roach 14. Baker scored 11 points off the bench, all in the second half when he hit three 3-pointers.
The Blue Devils shot 50% overall from the field.
Duke’s lead was a mere point at 39-38 with 13:42 to play when Campbell’s Ricky Clemons sank a free throw to complete a three-point play.
But Roach hit a 3-pointer for Duke and, after a Campbell miss, Baker hit another with 12:39 to play boosting the Blue Devils lead to 45-38. That was Duke’s largest margin of the game at that point.
Baker’s 3-pointer with 9:40 to play gave Duke its first double-digit lead at 54-42.
Ricky Clemons and Cedric Henderson paced Campbell (2-1) with 18 points each.
Here’s what we learned about the Blue Devils on Saturday night:
Duke can go small and win
Campbell built an 18-8 lead early in the first half and the Blue Devils used a different lineup configuration to erase that deficit and take a 33-29 halftime lead.
The usual practice of swapping Mark Williams and Theo John at center was scrapped in favor of having the 6-10 Banchero man the post position. That allowed four perimeter players to surround Banchero and give Duke a quicker lineup.
The Blue Devils played all but 99 seconds of the final 10:56 of the first half without Williams or John in the game.
It helped Duke overall on the scoreboard. One negative effect was Campbell had a 20-12 rebounding edge at intermission.
Williams did not play in the second half, and John only played five minutes.
The Camels finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds.
Duke remains a tough team to shoot against
The Blue Devils allowed Kentucky and Army West Point to hit just 38.2% of their shots from the field. Campbell had an even tougher time, hitting only 36.1% of its field-goal attempts (22 of 61). The Camels made only 6 of 23 3-pointers (26.1%).
Wendell Moore put a scare into Cameron
One night after thrilling Duke fans with just the fifth triple-double in program history, Moore caused a hush to fall over Cameron early against Campbell.
The 6-5 Moore suffered what appeared to be an injury to his left leg on Duke’s first possession of the game. Play was stopped 12 seconds after tipoff for Moore to be attended to by Duke medical staff. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski walked the length of the court to speak with Moore, who was helped off the court and taken immediately to the team’s locker room without returning to the bench.
But Moore returned to the bench under his own power not long after the officials timeout at 15:52. While Campbell built an 18-8 lead, Duke athletic trainer Jose Fonseca massaged Moore’s left knee. With 13:02 on the clock, Moore returned to the game.
This story was originally published November 13, 2021 at 9:58 PM.