Through Duke's first 20 games this season, shooting guard J.J. Redick has only twice attempted fewer shots than he did in Saturday night's win over Virginia.
In the first of those contests, Redick played only 27 minutes as the Blue Devils destroyed Seton Hall Nov. 16 and had put the game out of reach by halftime.
The other came when Duke topped Memphis in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off, and Redick was held scoreless in the second half.
Against Virginia, however, the senior had his most efficient game as a Blue Devil, racking up 40 points while taking a mere 13 shots from the field. Redick twice scored 41 points this season, but needed 24 shots to get there in each of those contests.
"I've never really seen this here at Duke, where with 13 shots, you get 40 points," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "It was just an incredible performance."
Redick finished the game an amazing 11-for-13 from the field, including an 8-for-10 performance from beyond the arc. Redick found similar success from the free-throw line, missing just one of his 11 attempts.
All but three of Redick's baskets came from behind the arc, and with his 10 made free-throws, the senior finished the game with a ridiculous 3.1 points per shot attempted.
"I have a feeling before every game that it's going to be a good shooting night," Redick said. "It doesn't always work out that way for me though. Tonight, I think the key was for me to get off to a good start and hit my first couple of shots."
The senior converted his first five attempts and did not miss a shot until there was only 5:07 remaining in the first half and he had already notched 14 points. Redick atoned for the rare miss, however, corralling the offensive rebound and driving to the hoop to finish a difficult layup.
The basket gave the Blue Devils a 17-point lead and at that point Redick enjoyed a 16-14 advantage over the Cavaliers. Virginia head coach Dave Leitao called a timeout during his team's next possession and the Cameron Crazies erupted into a "J.J.'s winning" cheer. In fact, it was well into the second half before the Cavaliers held a significant advantage over the sharpshooter.
"J.J. had one of the great performances here," Krzyzewski said. "He hit the rim more on his free throws than he did on his three-point shots."
All of Redick's free-throws came in the second half, and his miss on the front end of a one-and-one was the only blemish on an otherwise perfect half-4-for-4 from deep and 5-for-5 overall.
Redick's most impressive make came on his lone basket from inside the arc. With less than 10 minutes to play, he drilled a fadeaway jumper just outside the paint as he was falling out of bounds.
Redick has always been known as a deadly shooter, and his performance Saturday is all the more astounding when considering the fact that his 84.6 shooting percentage topped his career best of 80 percent. During his freshman season, Redick went 8-for-10 from the field as he dropped 26 points on Dayton.
With his third 40-point game of the season, Redick improved his scoring average to 27.8 points per game, and he is on pace to surpass Duke's single-season record of 26.1 points per game, set in 1967 by Bob Verga.
"I think what [Redick] is doing this season, I think all of us-players, coaches, media in particular-should really savor," Leitao said. "He's having, not only a career year, but particularly this season, a year for the ages. I've watched it, I've studied it on film, and now I saw it in person. He understands the game of basketball for what he is as a player more than anybody I've seen in a long time."
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