Duke basketball guard Andre Dawkins announced last week that he will return for the 2013-14 season. After Dawkins spent this season redshirting, we're counting down his top-five performances as a Blue Devil.
No 5: Dawkins scores 16 off the bench against Miami
The date: Jan. 2, 2011
The game: Duke 74, Miami 63
Dawkins statline: 16 points on 5-of-9 shootiong, 2-of-4 3-pointers, four steals
The breakdown: With Kyrie Irving injured for most of the 2010-11 campaign, Dawkins' role was elevated. And with Seth Curry battling foul trouble in the team's first ACC game of the year, playing only 18 minutes, Dawkins was thrust even more into the spotlight.
Playing 29 minutes, Dawkins delivered one of his most complete performances of the season, scoring 16 of Duke's 18 bench points. He also recorded four steals, three of which came in the first half, as he and Nolan Smith combined to hold Miami wing players Durand Scott and Malcolm Grant to five points going into halftime. Grant and Scott finished the game a combined 8-of-26 (30.8%) from the field.
Dawkins is often known as an offense-first player, so this type of defensive effort was big for the then-sophomore. He also came up when he was needed most. Not only was Kyrie injured, but Curry was in significant foul trouble, picking up his fourth with 11:50 left in the first half.
The quote: “We’re going to play against great guards like that all year in this conference,” Nolan Smith said. “There are a lot of other great guards like those two, so for us to do that shows that we can defend.”
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