When the shots weren't falling early Friday night, the Blue Devils didn't panic.
No. 4 Duke overcame its worst shooting performance of the young season to defeat Temple 74-54 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on the back of a 21-9 extended run in the first 9:27 of the second half. The Owls held the Blue Devils to just 39.1 percent shooting, but couldn't find an offensive rhythm themselves, firing at just a 37.3 percent clip on the evening.
Freshman Jahlil Okafor struggled mightily in the first half, shooting just 3-of-13 in the opening 20 minutes. Still, the center headed to the locker room with eight points and seven rebounds, and finished the game with 16 points and eight boards. Okafor was joined in double-figures by captain Quinn Cook—who scored a team-high 17—and classmate Justise Winslow, who chipped in 15.
The Blue Devils finish out a brutal five-game, eight-day stretch to start their season Saturday at 9:30 p.m. against Stanford, which rolled UNLV 89-60 in Friday's first semifinal. The Cardinal are led by former Blue Devil great Johnny Dawkins, who will be coaching for the first time ever against Mike Krzyzewski and his alma mater. Dawkins' squad is loaded with veteran talent and reached the Sweet Sixteen a season ago.
Revisiting the three keys to the game:
Hit the glass: Okafor brought down seven of Duke's 16 offensive rebounds, both good numbers for the Blue Devils. But given the frequency of misses and available rebounds on the evening, Duke still found itself outpositioned at times underneath the basket. Temple gathered 13 offensive rebounds of its own and only trailed the Blue Devils 43-40 on the glass Friday night.
Use the depth of the bench: For the second straight contest, Duke received limited production from its bench. Grayson Allen led the way for the second unit with six points on a triple and three free throws, but no other Blue Devil reserve tallied more than three points. Matt Jones and Rasheed Sulaimon played 16 and 14 minutes, respectively, and Semi Ojeleye only saw five minutes of action. Overall, Duke's bench shot 4-for-12 and wasn't particularly inspiring in the rebounding or assists departments, either. For a team with McDonald's All-Americans up and down the lineup, the Blue Devil offense has become fairly reliant on a core subset of scorers.
Avoid unnecessary triples: The Blue Devils were trigger-happy from long range in the first half, launching 11 shots from behind the arc and connecting on just three. Duke followed that up by missing its first six 3-point attempts in the second frame. With Temple doing a good job making life rough on Okafor inside, the Blue Devils were forced to settle for perimeter looks, sometimes settling a little too willingly. By the end of the night, Duke was 7-of-23 from downtown, a mark that has to improve against a lanky Cardinal squad Saturday.
Three key plays:
9:56 remaining, first half: An errant Temple pass leads to a run-out for the Blue Devils, and freshman Tyus Jones finds Amile Jefferson in transition for the hoop and the harm. The and-one opportunity, which the junior converted, was part of a 7-0 run in less than a minute to help Duke extend its lead to 20-8. Temple would keep it close from there on out, but without the mini-spurt, the Blue Devils would have found themselves in even more of a game Friday night.
14:10 remaining, second half: Senior Quinn Cook drills an open 3-pointer from the top of the key to give Duke its largest lead of the game at 47-30. It was the Blue Devils' first made trey of the second half after missing its first six attempts. After a Temple lay-in on the other end, Owl head coach Fran Dunphy burned a timeout to try to stop the bleeding of what had become a 9-4 mini-run by Duke.
10:29 remaining, second half: Remember that timeout Dunphy called to stop the bleeding? It didn't work. Cook buries another wide-open look from downtown—this one from the corner in front of the Duke bench—to stretch the Blue Devil lead to 57-35. Duke hit three of four triples in that 3:30 span to take complete control in Brooklyn.
Three key stats:
Jahlil Okafor shoots 7-of-20 from the field: The Chicago freshman opened the game by missing five of his first six shot attempts, after misfiring on just five attempts in Duke's first three games of the year. Temple's Devontae Watson used his length to bother Okafor in the post; the freshman couldn't separate to get his shot off, getting blocked several times, including on a would-be slam dunk. Okafor was due for a long night sooner or later, and despite the decreased efficiency he still put up more big numbers Friday.
Duke gets to the line 26 times: The Blue Devils were the clear aggressors Friday, driving hard in the lane to draw contact on the Owls. Duke knocked down 17 of its 26 attempts from the charity stripe, compared to just 9-of-13 by Temple on the other end of the court. Southpaw Justise Winslow was a smooth operator in transition, charging into the lane time and again and registering a team-best nine free-throw attempts, of which the freshman sunk six. Although Duke over-relied on the deep ball at times Friday, its commitment to driving the lane will help the Blue Devils stay in any game in which they don't shoot well, as was the case Friday.
Temple commits 17 turnovers: Many of the Owl giveaways were unforced mistakes, errant passes that sailed out of bounds. But Temple also fell victim to Duke's pesky perimeter defense, which forced the Owl offense out away from the basket. In addition to the 17 costly turnovers, Temple only had six assists as a team, or one fewer than Blue Devil floor general Tyus Jones tallied by himself. Jones has 23 assists on the season, the same number the Owls have as a team through three games.
And the Duke game ball goes to....Quinn Cook
Cook led the Blue Devils in scoring for the second consecutive game and took the lid off the basket for Duke in the second half with a pair of big 3-pointers that broke open the game. The senior is flourishing playing opposite Tyus Jones in the starting backcourt, averaging 16.8 points per game. Cook also added five rebounds, an assist and two steals.
And the Temple game ball goes to...Will Cummings
The Owl point guard was the go-to play-maker all night for his team, even after picking up three first-half fouls. Cummings had a game-high 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting and picked up a pair of helpers and three steals. But the senior also helped play Temple out of the game, committing eight of the Owls' 17 turnovers that cut short their comeback dreams.
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