Mark Williams Leads Duke to Rout of Boston College

Freshman has hit 22 of last 26 shots

Duke was able to keep its season alive with an 86-51 blowout of Boston College in the first round of the ACC Tournament. The Blue Devils scored 10 of the games first 12 points, with center Mark Williams contributing four points and a steal over that game-opening run.

“Yeah, it's huge,” he said of the fast start. “It's always important to start quick. That translates to most of the game. I think we did a good job preparing ourselves today.”

Williams scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the game, continuing a hot stretch run in the regular season. Over his last five games, Williams has hit 35-of-45 for 77.8 percent. In his last three, he’s 22-of-26, .846.

“I mean, my teammates just finding me in the right place,” he said. “They're finding me in the right places, it's easier for me to just go up and make a shot or catch a lob or something like that. But yeah, honestly, my teammates, they were finding me in the right places. I tried to return the favor a little bit.”

If Duke wants to return to the NCAA Tournament, the Blue Devils need to make it to Saturday’s title game, and possibly win it. That would be a grueling stretch of five games in five days.

“I mean, yeah, I think we're just all going to have to take care of our bodies,” Williams said. “Playing game after game, it's going to be tough. Yeah, definitely just taking care of our bodies is important, getting rest and going from there.”

The Blue Devils looked fresh on Tuesday and got plenty of rest as their walk-ons played the final three and a half minutes.

“We know that the ACC Tournament is a new season,” Williams said. “We're 0-0, now 1-0, but we just have to take it one game at a time and go from there.”