Duke Blows By Miami 97-60, But Proctor Injures His Knee
We’ll have to see what the story is there.
In a game like Duke-Miami, there is always a chance that Duke, #3 in the country and fresh off a huge win against Illinois in the Garden, comes out a little bit flat and also that a struggling team like Miami plays out of its mind.
As it turns out, that didn't happen, or at least not to the point of danger as Duke won 97-60, but with a potential dark cloud as Tyrese Proctor left just before halftime holding his knee. He did not return.
Duke jumped out to a 15-2 lead and Miami couldn’t buy a shot early.
The ‘Canes started out 2-9/0-5 and with four turnovers in the first eight minutes as Duke extended its lead to 29-14.
The ‘Canes had some moments in the first half though, notably Jalil Bethea, who heated up from three point range, hitting 3-6 and, as the announcers pointed out, outperformed Illinois’ entire first half three point production in New York Saturday (the Illini missed 18 before finally connecting in the second half).
However, Isaiah Evans hit 5-6 in a first-half three point duel, including a four-point play, going into halftime with 16.
Miami played credibly in the first half and Duke may have been a little flat but the gap between these teams is considerable.
Miami had just eight scholarship players available and their best player, Matthew Cleveland, was out. Lynne Kidd was questionable but played well.
Duke finished the first half shooting 61.5 percent from both three point range and overall. The ‘Canes by contrast shot just 37.5/23.5 percent and had 11 turnovers. They did dominate the boards with 18 overall and 11 offensive. Duke had 11 and 4.
Even without Proctor, Duke started the second half on a 10-2 run to go up 57-34.
Miami made some unforced errors in the early second half, continuing a pattern of competing for part of a game then falling apart in the second half. The ‘Canes passed inside to (we think) Kidd and it just rolled out of bounds, untouched. On a later play, the ball handler just dribbled into Sion James who just picked the ball up. It was kind of sad, honestly. You know those guys wanted to play better than that.
The Blue Devils went up by 31, 69-38, with 12:30 left to play on a James jumper in the lane and from there on out, this game was essentially a scrimmage.
Knueppel finished with 20, Flagg had 16 points, six assists and five rebounds. Evans finished with 16 and Foster, who has come on strong in limited minutes lately, had 10.
Duke next plays Florida State at home on Saturday.
Notes - Although the Proctor situation is concerning, Foster’s recent play suggests he’s ready to step up and Evans has been great lately...you could see the contours of a nice player in former 5-star Bethea but he’s still not there yet...it’s nice to see Ngongba’s game emerging...he’s not overly athletic but he can refine that as he matures...you can’t teach intelligence...we’d have to go back and watch the last couple of games to see more clearly but Maluach is getting better fast...he needs to understand his length better and be more assertive but that’s coming...
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