Three takeaways from No. 9 Duke basketball’s win over La Salle at Cameron Indoor
No. 9 Duke’s deep roster of scorers ensnared another victim on Tuesday night.
Tyrese Proctor scored 22 points, the third Blue Devils player to reach the 20-point plateau in the season’s first five games, as Duke hammered La Salle, 95-66, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
A 6-5 sophomore guard, Proctor hit 7 of 11 shots, including two of three 3-pointers, for Duke (4-1). He also grabbed seven rebounds while collecting four assists. Over Duke’s last three games, all wins, Proctor has played 91 minutes without committing a turnover.
“Tyrese was terrific tonight,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “It was his best game he’s played this year and, maybe, period. In the last three games, he’s at 14 assists and no turnovers, which is not an easy thing to do, especially with how much the ball is in his hands. He was still aggressive to score at the same time and then he’s defending like crazy on the other end.”
Duke’s Kyle Filipowski, who has a pair of 25-point games this season, scored 17 points against La Salle (4-1) while tying Proctor for the team lead with four assists.
The Explorers shot 41.4% and made just six of 24 3-pointers (25%). Khalil Bradley, coming off a 30-point game in La Salle’s 79-78 win over Southern Indiana last Friday, hit just 2 of 10 shots while scoring nine points against Duke with Proctor drawing his defensive assignment.
Retired Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski watched the game courtside as his longtime friend, Fran Dunphy, coached La Salle. Krzyzewski and Dunphy were teammates on All-Army basketball teams in the early 1970s before embarking on their coaching careers.
Having coached at Penn, Temple and La Salle, Dunphy has 599 career wins. Krzyzewski, of course, finished his Hall of Fame career with an NCAA record 1,202 wins.
Here are three takeaways from Tuesday night’s game:
Filipowski starts sluggish, heats up
After leaving Duke’s 90-60 win over Bucknell last Friday with a sprained ankle, Filipowski recovered well and started once again Tuesday night. His first half was choppy, though, as he scored three points, picked up two fouls and played only 10 minutes. He missed a layup and looked uncomfortable running back up the court.
But halftime fixed whatever ailed Filipowski. He scored 10 of Duke’s first 12 points after intermission as the Blue Devils opened a 51-31 lead.
“He has those little mood swings like that,” Duke senior guard Jeremy Roach said. “But you gotta just slap him up a little bit sometimes and get him right.”
Duke’s leading scorer at 18.8 points per game this season, Filipowski scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half.
“I think he was just in his head a little bit in the first half,” Proctor said. “But we all had his back in the locker room. He knew that and he just played the way we know he can play in the second half.”
Backcourt production
Proctor was just the latest Duke guard to have a breakout night this season.
On Friday night against Bucknell, freshman guard Jared McCain scored 17 points. When Duke beat Michigan State, 74-65, on Nov. 14 in Chicago, freshman guard Caleb Foster led the way with 18 points. Roach has also turned in a 17-point performance this season.
“They’re all going to have games where they can score a lot individually,” Scheyer said. “But they’re going to have some games where, together, it can be all four of them that have it going. So we have to continue to find the rhythm, find the flow of it all. But they’ve done a terrific job so far.”
Sean Stewart brings the energy
Freshman Sean Stewart continued to show a high level of production in the few minutes Scheyer has carved out for the 6-9 forward. In six first-half minutes, Stewart scored six points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked one shot. Those plays were critical to Duke taking a 39-29 lead to intermission.
Stewart finished with a career-best 16 points and 10 rebounds.
It’s the third time Stewart has scored six or more points in a game this season even though he’s only averaging eight minutes of play per game. He played 17 minutes against La Salle and that number could stay that high if he keeps playing like this.
“He’s in such an early stage of his development as a player,” Scheyer said, “but he can do something right now that translates with his ability to rebound, his ability to protect the rim, his versatility guarding the ball.”
This story was originally published November 21, 2023 at 9:03 PM.