The Blue Devils entered Saturday with the status of starting point guard Tre Jones still in doubt. After a shoulder separation knocked the freshmen out of the game it was thought that Jones would be out for the better part of the rest of the season.
Coach K, in an interview with The Athletic, mentioned that the Jones injury would probably not be long term and that they would take it day by day. Jones did not suit up for the game with Virginia so the Blue Devils would have to shuffle the lineup. The Blue Devils chose to use size adding Marques Bolden and Jack White to the staring line-up.
Playing Virginia with the full compliment of your lineup is difficult to play them without your best defender and leading assist man is herculean. This was a Virginia team that hadn’t given up 75 points all season, in fact the most points the Cavaliers had given up was 71. Duke was able to inch past the Wahoos by scoring 72, well off the Blue Devil’s average of 90 but well above the average the Cavaliers normally give up (51.7).
In a game that saw only 5 3-pointers go down between the two ACC heavyweights and with neither team having a decided advantage in turnovers with both only committing 8, the Blue Devils were able to do just enough. The Blue Devils, on the strength of R.J. Barrett’s 30 points and Zion Williamson’s 27 and 9 rebounds were able to break down Virginia’s Packline Defense with an array of motion, cuts and drives to the bucket forcing the Virginia defense to guard individually.
Duke used size mismatches to their advantage, going with a large lineup with Zion Williamson being the shortest player in Dukes lineup at 6’7. In the first half that advantage played well for Duke with a decided edge in rebounds and second chance points. Duke went into the half with a 20 to 12 lead in rebounding (9 to 2 offensive) which led to an 11 to 2 advantage in second chance points.
The second half saw the Cavaliers shore up their rebounding issues to the tune of an 18 to 12 advantage, Duke countered with an 11 to 2 edge in fast break points in a game of limited offensive opportunities.
UVA was led in scoring by Deandre Hunter, who scored 18 points and grabbed 4 rebounds. Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome poured in 14 each and combined for 10 boards for the Cavaliers. Who dropped their first game of the season.
