This is a story of two halves.
Well, more specifically, it’s a tale of two halves of turnovers.
In the first half against Lipscomb, Duke looked completely disjointed, constantly giving the ball away, and had already scored 16 points before halftime, which was somewhat shocking for a team that has been very ball-controlled all season.
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That’s a constant — Cameron Boozer has four. Nick Hamegna, Isaiah Evans and Kayden Boozer each scored three points. Four other players also scored once, with only Caleb Foster, Malik Brown and Darren Harris not scoring in the half.
Lipscomb is well-coached and mature and ready to take advantage. After leading 10-0, Duke fell behind 26-16 and had to fight to catch up. They did that at halftime, but turnovers marred their performance.
The first half looked like a waste for the Blue Devils after Nik Khamenia landed on his face in an ugly fall after grabbing the ball.
Still, they tied the game and headed into the locker room with a hard-earned 48-45 lead after Cameron Boozer scored at the buzzer.
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The second half was a completely different story.
Duke stepped up its offense and began to distance itself from the Bison. Boozer made two free throws and Duke University led 52-49. He then hit a layup and Evans dunked, leading 56-49. Soon, the floodgates opened. Duke started to defend better and get out in transition, shooting easier.
Best of all, they stopped coughing the ball up.
Lipscomb’s foul trouble also helped.
The first half was not pretty, but post-test games rarely are.
After the first half, though, we started to see a lot of the great things about Duke. The Blue Devils defense did a great job keeping Lipscomb off the boards.
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In fact, it was one of the Blue Devils’ best scores: Duke dominated the boards 55-21. Offensively, the Blue Devils were completely dominant 20-3.
While Lipscomb earned points on turnovers 27-11, Duke outscored the Bison 26-0 on second-chance scoring chances.
Ultimately, while Lipscomb showed a lot of grit in the first half, Duke showed too much, outscoring the Bison 49-28 in the second half.
Turnovers are an issue here, but not long-term. They haven’t played a game like this before. In fact, Duke only scored eight points the last time it faced Michigan State. This is more due to exam breaks and being out of sync.
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The Blue Devils have a few days to figure things out before they return to the Garden to take on Texas Tech.
Notes – Boozer had another double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds…Patrick Ngomba also had 10 points and 11 rebounds…He also had 2 blocks…We saw Kamenya show some clear toughness after his face bounced off the floor, and Darren Harris, who played hard…Kayden Boozer had four turnovers, but Played well otherwise…Foster plays with a certain swagger we’ve never seen before…watch him drive…different guy…Duke is a very different team down the stretch…once the Lady Salles are fully committed, he’s going to be a big factor…his physical gifts are truly impressive…
