HOUSTON — For the past few years, the knock on Duke has been that the Blue Devils were a finesse squad, incapable of winning a physical, gut-it-out contest against the best teams in the country.
A quick look at the bleeding cut on senior Lance Thomas’ forehead after Duke’s 78-71 victory over Baylor was all the proof necessary to disprove that claim Sunday.
“It was physical out here. This gash is the least of what I have—I got beat up the whole game,” Thomas said. “But we work really hard in practice…. We push ourselves, so I feel like at the end of the game I was at my best. I already had my second wind.”
The Blue Devils battled all game against the Bears, outrebounding a frontcourt that included three players 6-foot-10 and taller despite dealing with foul trouble. Thomas epitomized Duke’s toughness Sunday, scoring seven points and pulling down nine rebounds, eight of those coming on the offensive end.
Whenever the Blue Devils needed a bucket, Thomas was there to grab the board and earn an extra possession for Duke. In the second half, he had five offensive rebounds, two of which led to open, second-chance 3-pointers for junior Nolan Smith.
“I think our offensive rebounding kept us in it and really was the key there to get some separation in the last four minutes,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
“It’s tough when you’re playing defense for 30 seconds and they get a kickout three,” Baylor guard Tweety Carter said. “They made big shots and credit to them.”
Thomas also had perhaps the biggest play of the game on the offensive end. After junior Kyle Singler missed a three from the corner, the senior slammed the ball home on a tip-in and earned a trip to the line in the process.
“It was my first tip-dunk of the year, so it was good,” Thomas said. “It came at a perfect time.”
Thomas’s aggressive play influenced the rest of the team. Senior center Brian Zoubek, despite being limited by foul trouble, pulled down nine rebounds as well and drew a game-changing charge on Baylor forward Quincy Acy with Duke up by two. The play could have been Zoubek’s fifth foul, but instead, the Blue Devils took the lead for good two possessions later.
Duke’s physicality also extended to attacking Baylor’s zone. Smith, in particular, actively drove at the zone, earning eight attempts from the foul line. As a team, the Blue Devils shot 29 free throws, 27 of those coming in the second half.
“They’re real physical and made us work for everything,” Scheyer said. “They matched us with our size. They’re bigger than us, probably. So we had to work for every rebound. It was one of those games where it was a possession-by-possession game against a really tough team.”
It was the type of game that Duke would have been considered too soft to win in years past.
But this year, with blood still shining on Thomas’s forehead after the game, it was exactly the kind of contest the Blue Devils relished on the way to the Final Four.
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