Coach Mike Krzyzewski had ominous news for the rest of the teams on Duke’s schedule after Thursday’s 84-68 cuffing of Boston College at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“I’m telling you, the big guys are getting better,” Krzyzewski said. “They’re getting better. It’s good to see. It’s really good to see for me, because that means we’ve got a better chance to win.”
Senior guard Nolan Smith led the way with 28 points and eight assists, and sophomore guard Seth Curry poured in five 3-pointers on seven attempts for 20 points. Even so, Krzyzewski took special pains afterward to praise the play of his three developing post players after the Blue Devils rolled to their fourth straight victory while improving to 19-1 overall and 6-1 in ACC play.
Sophomore Ryan Kelly made six of nine shots from the floor to score 14 points, sophomore Mason Plumlee pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds to go with eight points and junior Miles Plumlee contributed four steals in 14 minutes. Kelly hit his first five field-goal attempts of the game, running his streak to 18 straight before missing a tip with 161/2 minutes remaining. He fell just short of the ACC record held by Alaa Abdelnaby, who played for Duke from 1986 to 1990.
“It was going to happen,” Kelly said. “I wasn’t going to keep making shots, but every shot I take, I’m confident in it.
“I’ve said it before, and that shows when I miss a couple shots in a row and shoot the next one and make it.”
Reggie Jackson, a junior guard for BC who is second in the ACC with 19.1 points a game, didn’t start either half Thursday. He did play 32 minutes, but made only three of 11 shots from the floor to finish with a season-low seven points. He had six assists and three turnovers.
Coach Steve Donahue was asked about the move after Corey Raji led the Eagles with 18 points and Joe Trapani contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“Just trying to build a program,’’ Donahue said. “Practice matters and kids who practice well get rewarded by playing time. The more I look at it, Dallas Elmore’s done a really good job and so has Corey.
“I think both of those guys deserve to start based on how well they’ve done in practice over the last couple of weeks.’’
The Blue Devils, who entered the game ranked ninth in the ACC in 3-point field-goal percentage, rediscovered their long-range touch to spark a 17-5 second-half explosion that broke the game open.
Duke made 10 of 22 from beyond the arc as Curry, making his first start since the loss to Florida State on Jan. 12, hit five of seven and Kelly drilled two of four.
After missing their first 3-point attempt of the second half, the Blue Devils made five of their next seven to extend the lead to 69-47 on Curry’s bomb from the right wing off the fast break.
Duke entered the game shooting 31.3 percent from 3-point range against ACC competition.
“One thing Coach harped on us before this game is we have to prepare for our shots, and be ready to shoot on the wings when Nolan drives,’’ Curry said. “In previous games we weren’t really ready to shoot. We had to catch it and gather ourselves.
“We really worked on being ready. I was able to get my shot off by the way I prepared before I shot the ball.’’
Donohue, whose Eagles fell to 14-7 and 4-3, said that teams who play the Blue Devils have to pick their poison.
“We tried to stay home and guard and help out on penetration as much as we could without giving that up,’’ Donahue said.
“I thought Duke did a very good job of spreading the floor and then, like a lot of things in sport and life when you start feeling good about themselves, good things happen.
“And that’s what happened tonight.’’
dcollins@wsjournal.com
(336) 727-7323
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement