Three days, three games and three wins. And for the fifth time, the Blue Devils can call themselves the champions of Maui.
Despite being down at halftime of the final game of the Maui Invitational, Duke outscored Kansas by 11 points in the second period to defeat the No. 14 Jayhawks 68-61 at the Lahaina Civic Center in Lahaina, Hawaii.
Before beating Kansas on Wednesday for the title, the Blue Devils beat Tennessee 77-67 in the quarterfinals and No. 15 Michigan 82-75 in the semifinals.
For Duke, a recurring theme throughout the three-day tournament was its emerging perimeter defense. Entering its opening-round matchup against the Blue Devils, the Volunteers had nailed 26 threes in their first two games, in which they went 2-0. Against Duke, however, they did not hit one shot from beyond the arc. In the championship game against the Jayhawks, the Blue Devils allowed just two threes, while sophomore Tyler Thornton hit two of his own in the last 90 seconds to secure the victory.
Tenacious backcourt defense forced Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor to commit 11 turnovers, and the last of those led to the Thornton three that put Duke up 66-61. Although Thornton’s heroics stole the headlines, the perimeter players realize the tight win against Kansas would not have come without execution in less glamorous areas.
“[People] look at Tyler’s shot as the reason we won, but there were plays before [it] that won the game,” freshman guard Austin Rivers said, “Whether it was Tyler getting a rebound, or somebody boxing out [Kansas forward Thomas] Robinson, or someone getting a steal or Seth [Curry] getting a charge.”
Rivers was one of two Duke players to be named to the all-tournament team, alongside tournament MVP Ryan Kelly. The junior forward was a paragon of consistency, scoring 17 points in each of the three games. Rivers, on the other hand, showed flashes of brilliance even if he did not produce them regularly. He put home a game-high 20 points against the Wolverines, but was not on the court for much of the second half against the Jayhawks as he yielded minutes to the more defensive-minded Thornton.
Kelly and Rivers, along with fellow starters Curry, Mason Plumlee and Andre Dawkins had their fatigue put to the test with no days of rest between the games and head coach Mike Krzyzewski using his bench less as the tournament progressed. Against Tennessee the bench played a total of 41 minutes, but the bench earned just 30 minutes of action in each of the next two contests.
With the increased burden on the starters, the only bench players to receive significant minutes throughout the course of the tournament were Thornton and Miles Plumlee, while forward Josh Hairston and guard Quinn Cook saw brief stints on the court.
“This is still early in the season, and especially when you have something like Maui where you can have three games in three days, people figure out themselves more in the system,” Mason Plumlee said. “You get more comfortable with each other so you realize what a guy like Ryan can do, what Seth can do. Playing with them in back-to-back-to-back games, you learn that.”
Plumlee showed growth throughout the set of games, averaging 10.3 points and 10 rebounds, but had his best performance against the Jayhawks, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 boards while battling against an elite talent in Robinson. Although Robinson notched 15 points of his own, they came on 6-of-15 shooting and only six of them came in the second half.
The forwards showed growth from half to half, outrebounding the Jayhawks in the second period after pulling down seven fewer misses than their opponents in the first 20 minutes. Facing top competition like Robinson should help prepare the Blue Devil frontcourt for a Tuesday matchup against Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger, one of the nation’s premier forwards.
“You’ve got to keep [Sullinger] off the glass, and that was the case in the Kansas game too,” Plumlee said. “We got outrebounded heavily in the first half. Whenever you play teams with good bigs, one of the biggest things is winning the boards.”
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