ACC Basketball

Duke Opens Scheyer Era With 71-44 Win Over Jacksonville

by
SportsCarolinaMonthly
November 8, 2022

DURHAM – The seventh-ranked Duke men’s basketball team opened the regular season on Monday night, defeating Jacksonville 71-44 at Cameron Indoor Stadium to win the head coaching debut for Jon Scheyer. Kyle Filipowski became just the fourth Duke freshman to record a double-double in a season opener with 10 points and 12 rebounds and classmate Mark Mitchell led four Blue Devils in double figures with 18 points.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Mark Mitchell opened the scoring for the Blue Devils, slamming home an alley-oop pass from fellow freshman Tyrese Proctor on Duke’s first possession of the night.
Team captain Jeremy Roach caught fire from deep early, connecting on back-to-back three pointers in the midst of a personal 8-0 run.
Jalyn Blakes drilled his second three-pointer of the half to give Duke its first double-digit lead with 10:30 remaining in the frame, 23-13.
Roach became the first player to reach double figures with his third three-pointer of the half, putting Duke ahead, 28-22, with 5:37 until halftime.
The Blue Devils closed out the first half on a 14-2 run and took a 42-26 lead into the locker room.
Duke forced a Jacksonville timeout after taking a 50-28 lead, the largest lead of the night, at the 14:02 mark.
The lead grew to as many as 28 (66-38) in the closing minutes as 11 different Blue Devils saw action in the opening-night win.

NOTES

Duke is now 91-27 all-time in season openers, and have won 22 consecutive. In season openers that occur at home, Duke has won 30 consecutive.
Duke head coach Jon Scheyer made his head coaching debut for the Blue Devils. He is Duke’s 20th head coach all-time and Duke head coaches are now 13-7 in their debut game.
Duke out rebounded Jacksonville 44-25, including a 16-7 edge on the offensive glass. The second chance points favored Duke, 18-4.
Of the 11 Blue Devils that saw action, 10 had at least one rebound.
Duke limited Jacksonville to just 18 points in the second half. The Dolphins shot .340 (18-of-53) from the field and .130 (3-of-23) from three-point range.
Nine players made their Duke debut in the game, including three that started – Proctor, Filipowski, Mitchell and Ryan Young.
Four players scored in double figures, led by Mitchell’s game-high 18 points.
Filipowski recorded a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, to go with three assists and two blocks. He is just the fourth Duke freshmen to record a double-double in a season opener, joining Jalen Johnson (vs. Coppin State in 2020), Marvin Bagley III (vs. Elon in 2017) and Jason Williams (vs. Stanford in 1999).
Junior Jeremy Roach scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. He was one three-pointer shy of matching his career high, and his 16 points matched his third highest scoring career game.
Young finished with 12 points on 6-of-6 shooting with seven rebounds (a game-high five offensive) with a game-high three steals and two assists.
Blakes recorded his first career game with multiple made three-points – he had five games last year with one three.
Blakes finished with a career-high eight points on 2-of-3 shooting (2-of-3 from three) and 2-of-4 from the line with three rebounds.

QUOTES

“I just took a moment before going out there. What an opportunity, what a moment. This is a place I’ve grown up in, playing, coaching, and to be here as a head coach, I was not going to be anywhere other than this moment right now. And hopefully I can do that, going forward through the ups and downs. But for me tonight, that was my main focus.” – head coach Jon Scheyer
“I think that’s really been a point of emphasis from the beginning of the season, both in our closed scrimmage and that first exhibition. We were a little frustrated with the way we rebounded defensively, and we wanted to make sure that’s part of our identity as a team that plays physical and plays hard throughout the whole defensive possession and then obviously to complete the defensive possession with a rebound. So that’s something we’ve been drilling in practice and something that’s been emphasized from the coaching staff to us. We’ve got to have that reputation that it’s hard to score on us for 40 minutes.” – Duke center Ryan Young on the team’s physical play, especially on the defensive end.