Sloppy Blue Devils regroup to put away Lipscomb 97-73 – DukeBlog

After having ten days off from games, Duke hosted Lipscomb, while last season a tournament team had a ton of turnover, something the Blue Devils were no stranger to. The Bisons filled those holes through the transfer portal as one does and despite dropping a number of games early, they were on a five-game winning streak Tuesday night in Cameron. Both teams got off to a confident start and for the first few minutes it looked like Duke would run over the hapless Bisons. No such luck, Duke’s early 10-0 run was defeated by the Bisons, who pushed the pace and got cozy in Cameron. It must have felt like Christmas for the Bisons, who had 16 turnovers in the first half and scored 21 points off those Duke turnovers. For the Blue Devils, they were unable to get out of the way for the entire half. The frustrating thing for Duke fans was that it wasn’t a solid, amazing defensive effort that thwarted the Blue Devils in the first half, but a lot of bungling passes and mishandling of the ball. The Bisons took full advantage, building a 10-point first half (26-16), with another 10-point burst midway through the first stanza. Duke scored eight of the next 10 points, narrowing the margin to two possessions, 28-24, highlighted by a Cameron Boozer dunk on the fast break.
A pair of 3-pointers from Darren Harris helped the Blue Devils pull within a point, 42-41, with just over two minutes before halftime. Duke surged at the end of the frame to score the final seven points, including a tip-over bucket at the buzzer from Boozer, giving Duke a three-point lead at halftime.

The second half started with a pair of Duke turnovers and consecutive layups by the visitors to start the second half led to an early Duke timeout, the Blue Devils putting up eight points in the next two minutes, punctuated by a one-handed slam from Isaiah Evans after a steal. Duke never looked back from that point on and seemed to gain a foothold to cruise to a 24-point victory. Cameron Boozer, even with what was his most inefficient and worst floor game of the season with six turnovers, still managed to score 26 points and pull down 13 rebounds. Isaiah Evans also had a horrible floor game with four giveaways, but reversed what felt like a mini shooting slump, hitting four of his seven three-pointers in the game, scoring 16 points and adding three assists. Sophomore Darren Harris, whose first half 3s kept the Blue Devils within striking distance, scored 11 points, went 2-5 from beyond the arc and added 2 assists. Maliq Brown added 11 points, hitting 5 of his 6 shots and dishing out 2 assists, while Patrick Ngongba added his first double-double as a Blue Devil with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go with his 2 blocks and 2 steals.

It’s a story as old as time for Duke teams coming out pretty poorly against a lesser team after the exam break. As fans, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment, even when you’re winning. I’m certainly guilty of that. It’s hard to see a team you’ve seen play ten games and in the eleventh game it looks like they just met for the first time. I can only imagine what it’s like for a coach. Even with the expectation that you won’t be at your best after a break, that must be maddening in many ways.

The Blue Devils passed the test, it’s hard not to worry, as Scheyer mentioned in his post-game presser, but nothing to overtly panic. Criticism of poor performance is always justified. Were there any mitigating factors? Sure, but any team, player or coach worth their salt wants to be held to a standard, regardless of any additional factors or circumstances. And was it a bad performance? Yes, the first half was awful, but full credit to the players and staff for regrouping and putting a team away. Sometimes it’s part of development to go through it and figure it out. Another achievement unlocked and hopefully another lesson learned.