With just over eight minutes remaining in Saturday’s win over Presbyterian, Coach K Court shook after a Miles Plumlee dunk put Duke ahead by 40 points. Less than a minute later, the volume increased when Mason Plumlee threw down a reverse slam of his own.
The 96-55 victory was dominated by moments like these, in which the veteran Blue Devil frontcourt controlled the area beneath the basket, outscoring the Blue Hose 40-16 in the paint.
Starting forwards Miles and Mason Plumlee each scored 13 points and combined for 19 rebounds in Miles’ first double-double since his sophomore season. Presbyterian (1-1) registered only 24 rebounds as a team.
“Their inside game was tremendous,” Blue Hose head coach Gregg Nibert said. “I wish I had a zone or something else in there to stop something, but it was like going to a knife fight with a toothpick.”
The two starting big men missed only five shots between them, going 12-of-17 from the field, although they struggled mightily at the charity stripe, making only 2-of-11 free throw attempts. They displayed a wide array of back-to-the-basket post moves, keeping Al’lonzo Coleman and Jay Reynolds—their primary defenders—off balance down low.
That pair of Presbyterian forwards also had to contend with Ryan Kelly off the bench, who dropped a game-high 17 points in a similar display of offensive efficiency. In a span of less than two minutes in the first half, the junior showcased his versatility with a dunk, a layup and then a three-pointer on which he was fouled on and converted into a four-point play.
“We took good shots, we were strong with the ball, our guards made good passes to us and we finished around the basket,” Kelly said. “It’s something we felt like we had really improved since last year.”
The strong performance on the inside manifested itself on both ends of the floor, keeping Coleman and Reynolds to a total of 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting, with each committing three turnovers. Coleman’s struggles were particularly noteworthy, as the forward notched 21 points in a season opening performance against Montreat.
Duke (2-0) finished with 27 points off of turnovers while the Blue Hose scored just eight.
“The defense was the biggest thing,” Miles Plumlee said. “I think that’s what made our offense go so well—when we’re working together on defense, we’re going to play together on the other end.”
This was in stark contrast to the team’s first game of the season, less than 24 hours prior against Belmont, in which the front court surrendered 40 points in the paint and scored 16 fewer. The Blue Devils received significant contributions from their perimeter players as well Saturday, with Austin Rivers, Seth Curry and Quinn Cook all posting double figures. The post players, though, set the tone for all facets of the offense with their physical play and 13 offensive rebounds.
For Duke to remain undefeated, it must continue the trend of inside-improvement against a Michigan State squad that outscored North Carolina in the paint in its season opening loss this weekend. The Blue Devils face the Spartans on Tuesday in Madison Square Garden as head coach Mike Krzyzewski looks for his record breaking 903rd career win.
“These two games in a row we made improvements from where we were before that, and we’ll have another big test on Tuesday,” Kelly said. “We feel like we can get better every single day. We have a high ceiling.”
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