MADISON, Wis.—Through the first 20 minutes of play at the Kohl Center No. 4 Duke leads No. 2 Wisconsin 35-32.
Freshman Tyus Jones leads the Blue Devils with eight points, and solid production from Duke's bench has kept the Badgers at bay throughout the first half.
The marquee matchup within the top-5 clash was supposed to be between Blue Devil freshman center Jahlil Okafor and Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky. The battle in the paint lived up to the hype through the first 20 minutes.
Okafor used his size early, backing down Kaminsky to put the Blue Devils on the board first to go ahead 2-0. After Kaminsky began denying entry passes, Duke was forced to take more time running through their sets in order to get good looks.
On offense, Kaminsky got the crowd into it early, answering Okafor's bucket with a pair of 3-pointers. The long ball would continue to be the shot of choice for the Badgers, as they went 0-of-9 on two-point field goal attempts through the first nine minutes but used four 3-pointers to keep pace with the Blue Devils.
Duke guard Rasheed Sulaimon entered the game following the under-16 media timeout and immediately made his presence felt, drilling a trey from the top of the arc to tie the game at 12.
Wisconsin was caught off-guard by the Duke defense in the first half, as the Blue Devils began switching on nearly every screen. Duke has not done this consistently yet this year and the Badgers did not seem to anticipate the change. Freshman forward Justise Winslow—tonight's X-Factor—was just that on defense, keying two steals, including one that led to a Marshall Plumlee breakaway dunk after Winslow dove to the ground for the ball after forcing the steal and threw it ahead to put Duke up 16-12.
The Blue Devils would maintain their four-point lead and push it to six with a Plumlee layup with 5:48 left in the half. But Wisconsin's Vitto Brown and Duje Dukan would answer with three buckets of their own to knot the score at 26-all with 3:46 left in the opening period.
But just when it seemed like things would end tied up, Tyus Jones continued his recent offensive explosion and finished the half hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to give Duke a 35-30 lead.
Observations from the first half:
- Kaminsky and Okafor were the big matchup to watch coming in and the two were fairly even early on. Kaminsky ultimately ended up with the better stat line, pouring in eight points and four rebounds to Okafors four-point, one-rebound performance.
- Switching really threw the Badgers for a loop early on, but they settled down and started attacking mismatches after the first seven minutes. Duke will need to be crisp with its help defense if it wants to continue using the method in the second half.
- Wisconsin guard size seemed to be a factor that would play a big role in the contest, but outside of a couple Traevon Jackson post-ups, the Badgers did not attack the paint with their front court.
- The Blue Devil bench earned first half MVP honors. Matt Jones, Sulaimon and Plumlee combined for 11 first-half points and consistently answered every big-time bucket Wisconsin scored. If the Blue Devils want to keep their lead and pull off the upset in Madison, the bench will have to keep it up in the second half.
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