Following what head coach Mike Krzyzewski would call the hardest fought game of his team’s season, senior Brian Zoubek sat in the locker room with both arms cut up, still stinging from his matchup down low against Wake Forest’s own 7-footer, Chas McFarland. As a result of foul trouble, the center played just nine minutes, but if you’d seen him you’d never have believed it.
Forwards Lance Thomas, Miles Plumlee and Mason Plumlee recorded four fouls each in a game that never seemed to get into a rhythm, as contact led to whistle after whistle, especially in the first half.
Ultimately, the Blue Devils’ success came from adapting to that style of play. Duke enjoyed an eight-point lead at the break not by shooting the ball particularly well—Singler, Scheyer and Smith went 5-for-28 in the period—but rather by converting on free throws, pulling down more rebounds than their opponent and avoiding costly turnovers.
Going into the game, both teams were 2-1 in the conference and desperately seeking a third win. Both teams—at least before the game—were well rested.
Miles Plumlee started the game with an alley-oop courtesy of Jon Scheyer, came back down the court on the next possession for a contested layup and then never slowed down. The sophomore had the best game of his career and, along with his 19 points, grabbed 14 rebounds.
“Miles, I mean to sum it up in one sentence, Miles Plumlee was a beast,” Smith said. “You know, he was tremendous tonight. He did everything that we needed him to do.”
With 2-of-11 shooting, Singler’s stat line failed to capture his actual value in the first twenty minutes of the contest, during which he had eight rebounds to go along with eight points. But as Singler began to find his shooting touch, Duke seemed to get into a rhythm. With 14 minutes left in the second half and the game tied 55-55, the junior hit a 3-pointer that kickstarted a 13-0 run for the Blue Devils.
But even though Duke did shoot 56 percent during the second half, closing the game hardly proved easy. Mason Plumlee—who missed six games earlier this season with a broken wrist—hit the floor after being flagrantly fouled by Wake Forest’s Ishmael Smith. And Singler, too, was punished by contact, briefly coming out of the game during the second half when it looked like he had injured his wrist.
By the time the action ended on the court, the Blue Devils and Demon Deacons had combined for 47 personal fouls, with the majority of the contact taking place just feet away from the basket. During the second half, Zoubek and McFarland were called for a double foul after getting tangled up and bringing each other to the ground. Just possessions later, McFarland fell to the floor as he got boxed out by Duke’s center—but this time the referee made no call, instead shaking his head in amused disbelief.
By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Blue Devils had secured another 20-point victory in Cameron—all but one of the team’s home games have been by at least that much—but the box score surely didn’t capture the fact that each and every one of Duke’s 90 points came contested.
“It was just a fight in the paint,” Smith said. “I went in there a couple times and I was like, ‘Nah, let me get out of here.’ It was too physical down there for me…no, but it was definitely a war for 40 minutes. Those guys probably have to get in the ice bath right now, after a game like that.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.