Duke basketball: Blue Devils wrap up non-conference slate in style
Jeremy Roach sat out the Duke basketball team's 82-55 home win over the Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (3-7, 0-0 Mid-Eastern) on Saturday evening with a toe injury. By all accounts, it sounds like the junior captain and usual starting point guard could have played, but the staff was playing it cautiously by having him in street clothes.
First-year Blue Devil head coach Jon Scheyer turned to five-star freshman small forward Dariq Whitehead to replace Roach in the starting lineup, creating the program's first-ever all-freshman starting lineup.
Interestingly, all five of the Hawks' starters were seniors.
Although the young Duke lineup struggled out of the gates in what was their final non-conference game of the regular season — scoring only two points across the four minutes leading up to the first media timeout — it didn't take long after that for the Blue Devils to capitalize on their height and athleticism advantages.
Perhaps it helped that Scheyer inserted a couple of grad transfers and sophomore point guard Jaylen Blakes at that timeout.
All nine Duke basketball players who saw action in the first half scored, including freshman shooting guard Jaden Schutt, who, with Roach out, found his way into Scheyer's main game rotation and splashed a three from the corner just minutes after taking the floor. All but two Blue Devils had at least one assist before the break.
And the defensive-minded Blue Devils — eight steals and four blocks in the first half alone — entered the locker room with a commanding 39-21 lead.
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Duke took a while to find its rhythm in the second half, increasing its lead by only one point at 54-34 nine minutes into the half. It was smooth sailing from there, though, as most of the starting five spent the bulk of the final 10 minutes on the bench while Scheyer was able to give some floor time to the deep reserves and walk-ons.
Dariq Whitehead, drawing the first start of his Duke basketball career, finished with a career-high 15 points. That tied Blue Devil freshman point guard Tyrese Proctor, who slid over to the one-spot in the starting lineup in Roach's absence, for the game-high in the scoring column.
Meanwhile, another freshman starter, power forward Kyle Filipowski, added 14 points and seven rebounds as the only other Blue Devil to score in double-digits.
Duke shot 31-for-60 from the floor, 8-for-20 beyond the arc, and 12-for-13 from the foul line while outrebounding the Hawks 42-20.
The No. 15 Blue Devils (10-2, 1-0 ACC) have now held all 12 opponents thus far below their season scoring averages. Duke finished with 10 steals and seven blocks.
Scheyer's group now has nine days off before traveling to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face the unranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons (7-3, 0-1 ACC) on Dec. 20 at 6:30 p.m. ET (ACCN).
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