Road warriors: Three takeaways from Duke basketball’s impressive victory over Arizona
A whole lot of Cooper Flagg scoring and tight defense secured a big road win for No. 12 Duke on Friday night.
With Flagg scoring 24 points, the Blue Devils grabbed a lead early and never relinquished it as they beat No. 17 Arizona, 69-55, at McKale Center.
Duke (4-1), after squandering a double-digit, second-half lead while losing 77-72 to Kentucky on Nov. 12, showed more poise Friday to hand Arizona (2-2) its second consecutive loss.
A 6-9 freshman, Flagg scored 16 of his points in the second half when Duke, after leading 34-27 at halftime, pushed its lead as large as 13 points. Arizona climbed within six points once after that but could never draw any closer.
The Wildcats, who entered the game averaging 94.3 points per game, shot 39.6% from the field. That included 37% in the second half.
Kon Knueppel, with 13 points, was the only other Duke player who scored in double figures.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Knueppel comes up big late
Already known for his shooting touch and scoring ability just four games into his career, Knueppel was having another tough night against a major opponent on Friday. Remember, despite averaging 14.8 points this season, Knueppel was 5 of 20 in Duke’s loss to Kentucky.
Things weren’t going great for Knueppel against Arizona either — until the game’s final six minutes.
The Wildcats had whittled Duke’s lead, which was as large as 13 points in the second half, down to six, at 54-48 with 5:38 remaining.
But Knueppel drilled a 3-pointer with 5:17 to settle things down for the Blue Devils and extend their lead to nine points.
With 3:55 to play. Knueppel sank another 3-pointer, a key shot that gave Duke a 61-49 lead and made things far more comfortable for the Blue Devils.
Knueppel’s night doesn’t look statistically great as he made 4 of 11 shots. But those two shots he did make were huge for Duke.
Duke rebounds well
Duke dominated on the boards, posting a 43-30 edge as seven of the eight Blue Devils players who saw action grabbed at least one rebound.
The Blue Devils accomplished all that despite their tallest player, the 7-2 Khaman Maluach, playing just six minutes in the first half, when he grabbed just one rebound. Even then, Duke held a 22-14 edge at the break.
Maluach finished with just three rebounds — but Knueppel had seven to tie Maliq Brown for the team lead.
Sion James played a major role here off the bench, too, as the 6-6 graduate transfer from Tulane grabbed six rebounds. That’s while he was seeing extra minutes because Tyrese Proctor picked up his third foul with 16:22 to play and was out of the game for nearly four minutes.
Shutting down the Wildcats
Duke’s half-court defense made things difficult for Arizona for long stretches of Friday night’s game. Two stretches, in particular, hurt them.
Arizona suffered through a scoring drought lasting 5:03 in the first half as the Wildcats missed eight consecutive shots.
The Wildcats endured another scoreless stretch of 4:02 early in the second half when Duke pushed its lead to double-digits for the first time at 42-31 with 15:23 to play.
The key during both stretches was Duke’s stingy half-court defense. Even with Maluach on the bench, Brown filled in. While Brown isn’t the shot blocker Maluach is, the junior is adept at deflecting passes and playing deny defense.
Along the way, Duke also kept old nemesis Caleb Love quiet. The former UNC Tar Heels star, who averaged 18 points per game in his first season at Arizona last season, scored only eight points while making 3 of 13 shots from the field, including 1 of 9 on 3-pointers.
This story was originally published November 23, 2024 at 12:46 AM.