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Duke Basketball Defeats George Mason: 3 Takeaways

ByKyle Nachtsheim

Dec 23, 2024
Duke Basketball against George MasonDuke Basketball against George Mason (Photo credit: Kyle Nachtsheim)

Duke basketball overcame their third straight first half scoring under 40 points, defeating George Mason 68-47 in their final home non-conference game Tuesday night.

The Blue Devils (9-2) were led by Cooper Flagg, who had a career-high 24 points. Other than him, no other Duke player was able to score in double-digits due to George Mason’s top rated scoring defense. The Patriots (7-4) were led by Jalen Haynes, who scored 18 points while adding 7 rebounds.

Takeaway #1: Flagg overcame poor first half shooting.

At halftime, Flagg had only seven points on 2-for-11 shooting. George Mason was able to shut down the highly touted freshman. After only dropping six points against Incarnate Word, it was looking like Flagg would finally be hitting the first true hurdle of his college career.

 

The second half, however, showed why he was the No. 1 recruit out of high school. In the first five minutes of the second half, Flagg scored eight points to help extend Duke’s lead to 20 points.

“I thought Cooper was really aggressive, putting pressure on the defense,” said coach Jon Scheyer. “I think for many young guys, you get caught up in percentages and numbers sometimes. And for him, he was a warrior out there, with 24 [points], nine [rebounds], and four [assists]. I think that comes with his competitive spirit and being in attack mode.”

Defensively, Flagg was on the court 66.7% of the drives where George Mason failed to score.

Takeaway #2: Jalen Haynes put the Patriots on his back

Haynes, a senior transfer from East Tennessee State, led George Mason in scoring while notching his sixth-straight double-digit performance.  This is while dealing with a very physical Duke defensive front.

In fact, on two occasions during the game, he took a hard fall after a play and came up off the court slowly. He even had to leave the game for a few minutes in the second half due to apparent cramping. When he returned to the court, he continued to try to close the gap on the scoreboard.

Coach Tony Skinn is not surprised by Haynes confidence, but sometimes he can get a little less intentional in the paint.

“On a night when we could not really score, I would have loved for him to be a little bit more interior-based,” said coach Tony Skinn. “He gets a little happy on the perimeter sometimes, and he’s a good player.”

Takeaway #3: Season-low FG shooting kept the game close

For the third straight game, Duke failed to score 40 points in the first half. In fact, since the Wofford game, the Blue Devils have only scored 40 or more points just once.

With Flagg and junior Tyrese Proctor only scoring a combined 12 points, Duke went into the locker room notching their season-low scoring output in the first half with 25. One positive from the first half was the return of Maliq Brown, who missed the previous game with an injury.

In 16 minutes of action, Brown notched five rebounds and two assists to add to his second-half dunk that added an exclamation point to Duke’s 15-4 run to start the second half.

While Scheyer believes a bigger point of emphasis should be putting together a full 40 minutes, he was proud of the toughness he saw on Tuesday night.

“To be able to come back shows how we have a great competitive spirit and a toughness about us,” Scheyer said. We just have to get off to better starts. And I thought we did that tonight, overall. The thing I’m most proud of, though, is the focus for 40 minutes. And I think we were close tonight. I think we’re getting closer.”

Next up for Duke (9-2): at Georgia Tech (7-3) – Dec. 21 at Noon EST

Next up for George Mason (7-4): vs. Penn (3-7) – Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. EST

By Kyle Nachtsheim