Duke Starts Slow, Then Steamrolls Virginia Tech, 88-65

A nice outing for the Blue Devils

Duke started slow against Virginia Tech Tuesday afternoon as the Hokies opted to shut off the inside and letting the Blue Devils take threes.

Virginia Tech led 17-16 when that strategy started to fail: first Cooper Flagg hit a four-point play, then a few minutes later, after several free throws, Kon Knueppel hit a three and then Isaiah Evans hit one shortly after to give Duke a 28-18 lead with 5:16 to play. Mason Gillis finished that streak up with one more three to put the Blue Devils up 31-18 en route to an 88-65 victory.

Tyrese Proctor came down the lane with the shot clock running out for a dunk with 1:33 to play and then Sion James got a layup and Kon Knueppel got a jumper in the lane as the first half ended.

Ultimately it was a 14-2 run over 3:22. Cooper Flagg was the star of the first half with 14 points on 5-7/2-3 from the floor.

Virginia Tech got some excellent first-half play out of Charleston transfer Ben Burnham, who had seven, and big Patrick Wessler, who had four but also showed some real basketball savvy. He was highly impressive. If Virginia Tech can get him to play like that consistently, they’ll really have something.

Turnovers were a big part of the first half. Each team had six but Duke’s were more sloppy: two were off of lobs that Khaman Maluach couldn’t handle and one was a perimeter pass from Caleb Foster that was just too low for Mason Gillis to handle.

That’s not good, but Virginia Tech’s were worse as Duke’s pressure appeared to get to the Hokies. There were a couple of passes to no one in particular and the pressure also got the Hokies to panic a bit as the shot clock ran down.

The second half was pretty much all Duke.

The defense continued to be strong and productive. One of the highlight plays was a beautiful break after Maluach tipped the ball to Flagg who got it to James for an easy basket.

Virginia Tech was trying to seize the momentum at one point but Tyrese Proctor put an end to that with another emphatic dunk that put Duke back up by 15 at 45-30 with 15:58 to play.

And that was the point in the game when it was pretty clear that there would be no comeback. Duke was just playing too well.

The Blue Devils hit 67 percent in the second half and, although the Hokies got loose for some threes, the defense never really let up.

And Khaman Maluach had a bigger impact. He was vastly more active after the break, tipping balls, rebounding, blocking shots - he was a real problem for Virginia Tech.

The start of the game you can probably put down to the disruption the holiday schedule inflicts on college basketball teams. You get going in November, get good in December - and then exams and the holidays put you back to square one, more or less.

In the second half, Duke was much more in the groove. They forced Virginia Tech into a lot of mistakes and then took advantage of them. And when the shots started falling, there was nothing Mike Young or Virginia Tech could do.

Notes - In addition to his 24 points on 9-14/2-4 shooting, Cooper Flagg had six assists and four steals....Sion James had 11 rebounds which is just as impressive...we thought Caleb Foster played intelligently and under control....Isaiah Evans hit 4-7 from three point range...he also had four rebounds and two assists...Patrick Ngongba, Darren Harris and Ben Hammond, who were all playing for Paul VI last season, all got in the game...Patrick Wessler is not a gifted player but we admire his improvement...he’s really seriously improved...his role model should be Hunter Dickinson...if you watch closely it looks like Maliq Brown and Tyrese Proctor have an understanding on defense...and by the way, judging by his two dunks, it looks like the weight room has really paid off for that guy...