Duke Out-Dukes The Dukes 93-55 - On To The Sweet Sixteen!

What an amazing night for the Blue Devils

Duke started the game against James Madison like they had a personal grudge: at the 12 and under timeout, JMU had hit just two shots.

Duke meanwhile, had hit nine, including six threes - two by Tyrese Proctor and four by Jared McCain.

McCain didn’t cool down - he finished the half with 22 points and hit 6-8 on his three point attempts.

Duke really limited JMU, limiting the Dukes to 8-20 and a lot of that came late in the half. Only Terrence Edwards hit a three and for whatever reason, Madison really tanked from the foul line in the half, hitting just 8-15.

Duke also forced six turnovers and only had two themselves. The Devils also controlled the boards in the half, 21/7 to 13/3.

On the downside, Jeremy Roach injured his finger and appeared to be in significant pain, but he came back in the game. And Kyle Filipowski picked up two fouls.

Didn’t matter: Duke picked up where it left off in the second. Jared McCain hit a three to put Duke up 50-27 and Duke kept the pressure up defensively. When Tyrese Proctor hit a three from the corner to put the Devils up 58-29, you could tell that Duke was really feeling it.

Things were really rolling when Jaylen Blakes took a nasty fall on a fast break, which saw him leave the floor and go to the locker room. Hopefully he’s okay, but it didn’t look good.

The ref called a Flagrant 1 and Roach stepped up to take the shots, hitting them both, which put Duke up 80-46 with 7:30 left to play.

Fun fact: JMU cut the lead to 71-46 at

Duke scored nine more before JMU hit another basket, a three to make it 49-80.

That was with 6:55 left.

Should have been garbage time, right?

Not today, Zerg!

Duke limited JMU to just four points at the next timeout with 3:32 to play - and the Devils had scored another 10.

In short, this was Duke’s best, most complete game of the season. They played with immense confidence offensively, especially McCain, who finished with 30. Tyrese Proctor got 18, Roach 15, and Filipowski had 14.

On defense, the Blue Devils gave James Madison fits.

Duke held JMU to 38 percent overall and just 4-18 from behind the line for 22.2 percent. The Dukes held themselves to 13-23 from the free throw line (56.5 percent). JMU also coughed up 14 turnovers, some of them rather egregious.

You have to feel a little bad for the Dukes. They came into this game on a high and left it on a major low point in their season.

In fact, it’s bound to the lowest point, period. But they accomplished quite a bit and had a terrific season. It’d be a shame if they judged it by this one game.

Duke now moves on into the Sweet Sixteen, where they’ll play the winner of the Houston-Texas A&M game. If it’s A&M, we’ll see former Blue Devil Henry Coleman. And if it’s Houston, Duke will get a major test indeed.