Duke Pours It On In The Second Half To Down BC, 88-63

Lots of good signs for Duke in Conte Forum Saturday night

The first part of the Duke-Boston College game illustrated what we admire about his program: they rarely have more talent than their opponents but they just bust their butts. And even though Duke won 88-63, that’s what we saw Saturday evening.

BC came out and really took it to Duke early, pounding the ball inside, primarily to St. Bonaventure transfer Chad Venning, who hit three early shots in the lane and giving Khaman Maluach a significant challenge.

The Eagles pulled ahead 18-13 before the Blue Devils clicked into gear. Duke caught up at 22-22 and then pulled into the lead for good, building a 40-34 halftime lead.

This was of course Cooper Flagg’s first game back in New England and while he seemed nervous at first, eventually he got into takeover mode. Flagg was slicing and dicing the Eagles. He had one spin move inside that was just beautiful. He had another dunk that might be Play of the Day material (Jaylen Blakes probably got that in Chapel Hill though). It didn’t work, but he picked off a pass, dove to the floor then got it to a teammate - we think Mason Gillis - who unfortunately threw it away.

There was a lot more to like.

Maluach is increasingly fluid offensively and we’re now seeing a guy with a lot more confidence. His stats weren’t overwhelming but his comfort level is vastly better than it was a few weeks ago. It’s one of the most exciting developments in Duke’s season.

Tyrese Proctor is showing a lot more confidence on offense himself. He’s not at all hesitant to shoot outside and you may have noticed that his shots are not bouncing around: they are soft as butter.

It’s a big change from last year. Everyone recognized his defensive intensity but his offense was erratic. Now it’s dangerous.

Sion James was quiet offensively but in the second half he began to drive on the Eagles and that worked pretty well.

Of the starters, Kon Knueppel had the worst outing, shooting 0-5 and not scoring. It didn’t hurt Duke and freshmen will have those nights. No biggie.

More good news came from the bench as Isaiah Evans had one of his hot nights, scoring 16 and hitting 4-9 on threes and 5-11 overall.

Mason Gillis didn't score a lot but he helped out inside defensively in the absence of Maliq Brown and both Khaman Maluach and Patrick Ngongba getting into a bit of foul trouble (you may remember Scott Rich mentioning this the other day).

Caleb Foster hasn’t been scoring a lot off the bench but he has been doing some other things very well, notably getting the ball into transition and moving it around. He’s also been much more aggressive about penetration. We read somewhere that his ankle was still slowing him down following surgery after last season, and if so, it appears to be much better now.

And one more really great sign for the future as Patrick Ngongba, who has been getting more minutes as Brown recuperates following his knee sprain, is really showing some positive signs.

First, he has great hands. He’s making smarter decisions now too. He looked like a guy who was probably a year away, due to his high school injury, but he’s getting better fast. He’s not the same kind of player Brown is, but he can give Maluach some quality rest without hurting the team and right now, that’s a solid role for him.

The defense was really good too, as it has been all year. Venning was a problem (it would have been handy to have Brown to sub in on him) and shot 7-11. However, other than Donald Hand, no one scored more than 12 and the Eagles shot 22-49/5-15.

Unfortunately, BC shot just 14-26 from the line (53.8 percent) and had just seven assists on 22 made baskets.

Duke by contrast assisted on 18 of 30 baskets.

Obviously, Duke was favored and was supposed to win, but BC - in general but particularly under Grant - has really come to play against Duke, at least at home.

He’s going to need better talent to compete consistently, but does he have chops?

Yes, he does. The man can coach.

With the win, Duke moves to 16-2 overall and 8-0 in the conference. The Blue Devils now get a week’s rest before going to play Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, and the Joel has often been a tough environment for the Blue Devils.

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