Duke Romps Stanford, 106-70

The Duke Blue Devils (22-3, 14-1 ACC) put on an offensive clinic as they ruined Jalyen Blakes and the Stanford Cardinal’s (16-10, 8-7 ACC) trip to Cameron Indoor Saturday afternoon. The Blue Devils led wire-to-wire and scored 106 points in a dominant offensive performance while only allowing the Cardinal to score 70.

The Blue Devils jumped all over the Cardinal from the jump, racing out to a 6-0 lead. The Cardinal battled back to make it a 16-13 game before the Blue Devils offense exploded. Duke went into halftime with a 49-34 lead. Maxime Raynaud of Stanford 18 first half points which was overshadowed by Duke’s completely dominant performance.

Not to be outdone by the fireworks of the first half, the Blue Devils scored 57 (!) second half points while staying consistent on the defensive end giving up 36. The two leading scorers in the ACC matched point totals on the night. Raynaud came in leading the ACC with 19.9 points a game and Duke’s Cooper Flagg was second averaging 19.8. Both Flagg and Raynaud ended the night with 19 points. The Blue Devils were once again led in scoring by junior guard Tyrese Proctor who has found another level in his game over the last month. Proctor scored 23 points in 29 minutes of play going 5-8 from the three point arc. Khaman Maluach found his offensive presence as well as his niche in the pick and roll game as he went 8-9 from the field (his only miss a wide open three point attempt) and scored 17 points all on dunks and one free throw. Sion James scored 14 points and had 6 assists to his one turnover.

The dominant performance by Duke allowed head coach Jon Scheyer to go deep into his bench. The Blue Devils played 13 players including Stanford transfer Neal Begovich who scored his only 2 points of the season on a break away dunk that blew the roof off of Cameron. The most impressive stretch of play came from embattled Duke guard Caleb Foster. Foster, who began the season as a starter, has not been able to find his footing this year after suffering a lower leg injury last season against Virginia Tech. His minutes and confidence has shrunk in real-time this season as the once sharp shooting freshman looked afraid to take any shot. In 6 minutes of play against the Cardinal, Foster scored 10 points (one more than phenom Kon Knueppel), going 2-3 from the arc and 4-6 overall from the field as well as three rebounds and one steal. Foster fearlessly drove to the basket and made a couple acrobatic layups that reminded Blue Devil fans of the Caleb Foster of old. With Foster in keep this form, and offering the Blue Devils another shooter and 10 points from the bench, the Blue Devils are the best team in college basketball.

The Cardinal were led by Raynaud’s 19 points and 7 rebounds. Duke grad transfer Jaylen Blakes could only muster two points on 1-10 shooting, well below his average of 15 points per game. The Cardinal have a week off before playing in-state rival California to get things right as they have lost 4 of their last 5 games. The Cardinal look like they are NIT bound.

The Blue Devils travel to UVA (13-12, 6-8 ACC) on the quick turnaround Monday evening. Then the Devils travel to Madison Square Garden to play the rare February non-conference game against Illinionis.