Duke Basketball, needing to rebound after Tuesday’s loss to Kentucky, came out of the gate hot to defeat Wofford 86-35 on Saturday.
Tyrese Proctor led the Blue Devils (3-1) with 15 points, with Isaiah Evans shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc to add 14 points off the bench. Duke held Wofford to 35 points, the fewest points allowed in the shot-clock era and the first time allowing under 40 since allowing 37 to Winthrop in the 2002 NCAA Tournament First Round.
Wofford (1-3) was led by Kyler Filewich and Corey Tripp, who each had 12 points. Despite only going 5-for-33 from three-point range, many of those shots were open looks that just did not drop. Filewich also added nine rebounds, which tied with Cooper Flagg for the most in the game.
Takeaway #1: Duke was able to experiment more with different lineups
Coming into this game, the Blue Devils were shooting 35% from three-point range. While that is a strong percentage for this program, Saturday afternoon allowed Duke to experiment their range.
Evans, a guard out of Fayetteville, NC, recorded a career-high in his third career game off the bench. That came in the form of four three-pointers.
“There’s an evolution of how they grow individually, and also how our team grows at the same time,” said third-year head coach Jon Scheyer. “It’s not like you’re afforded opportunities to experiment.”
That experimentation led Patrick Ngongba to see his first minutes of the season, scoring one basket and recording five offensive boards in 11 minutes. Scheyer praised the medical staff for helping Ngongba, a freshman center from Manassas, VA, come back from an injury he suffered in high school.
we see you @NgongbaPatrick 💪(ACCN) pic.twitter.com/pN2iWK3HW3
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) November 16, 2024
Takeaway #2: Wofford kept fighting despite shots not dropping
The Terriers, in their first three games of the season, averaged 46.4% shooting and 32.7% from beyond the arc. Duke’s defense, however, shut down Wofford’s offensive attack.
The Blue Devils allowed only 14 made field goals, with only five of them being from three-point territory. In fact, Wofford committed more turnovers than they had made field goals.
Views from Cameron Indoor 📸#ConquerandPrevail pic.twitter.com/G19jm0zfbQ
— Wofford Men’s Basketball (@WoffordMBB) November 16, 2024
“We were 2 for 20 from three in the first half and I [would] say 17 of those 20 threes were great looks that we would take every single time,” said third-year head coach Dwight Perry about his team’s offensive struggles. “What you can [not] do, you have to fight the urge to not let that affect the defensive side of the ball.”
It’s lessons like this that will help the Terriers when it comes to Southern Conference play, where they are expected to challenge Samford and Chattanooga for the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Takeaway #3: Emphasizing things that do not show up on the stat sheets
While many people will look at a box score and dissect how a team is shooting, Scheyer likes what he is seeing from his team that does not show up in a stat sheet.
“We always talk about focusing on the 98%, because that’s what impacts winning,” Scheyer said. “It’s sprinting back on defense, screening, making the extra pass. It’s pick and roll defense, it’s off-ball defense, it’s running the floor both ways.”
Dealing with a team that has seven players that classify who saw themselves as top scorers in high school can be a challenge. But Scheyer said they have been taking it in and learning to improve in that area.
“We were just flowing,” said junior guard Tyrese Proctor. “[Scheyer] is always talking about finding the open man and extra passes. The offensive rebounds and back passes helped us get into that.”
Duke will need to keep applying those lessons if they want to be successful in their upcoming two-game road trip that features two Top Ten matchups.
Next Up for Duke (2-1): at Arizona (2-1) – Nov. 22 at 10:30 p.m. EST
Next Up for Wofford (1-2): vs. St. Thomas (at Milwaukee) (3-1) – Nov. 22 at 5 p.m. EST