EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—The Blue Devils did not have their best game, but when it counted they dug down to fend off defending champion Connecticut.
Despite 19 turnovers and a 37.5 percent field-goal percentage on the night, Duke squeaked away with a 66-56 victory at the Thursday night at the Izod Center.
“It was a fight—a good fight, a clean fight,” Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Guys are playing so hard, and we played a little bit harder than them to win.”
Duke (10-0) opened the game with 12 turnovers and a 32 percent field-goal percentage in the first half. Freshman Justise Winslow missed all three field goal attempts and coughed up two turnovers, senior Quinn Cook went 1-for-5 with two turnovers and freshman Jahlil Okafor followed up his 25-point, 20-rebound performance with just one field goal in the first half—despite getting Connecticut's entire frontcourt in foul trouble.
“[The Huskies are] a very physical and aggressive team,” point guard Tyus Jones said. “They like getting up in you on the defensive end and then getting out on transition.”
The Blue Devils escaped the half with a 30-25 lead, largely due to the Huskies' poor offensive showing. Senior Ryan Boatright led Connecticut 4-4) with nine points but was getting little help as his fellow guards went 0-for-5 on kickout three-point attempts, and the Huskies recorded nine first-half turnovers of their own.
Down just five coming out of the break, the Huskies looked as if they might take their first lead since the opening minutes of play. Following a layup by Kentan Facey off a feed from Daniel Hamilton, the Huskies capitalized on a mistake from Winslow coming out of a Duke timeout. The Duke freshman, after missing a three, ran into Ryan Boatright, committing a loose ball foul right in front of Krzyzewski. Hamilton knocked down a jumper on the other end, and Boatright drew a foul on the next possession to get to the line. The senior made just 1-of-2 to tie the game at 30.
But from there on out, Duke took over.
The struggling Winslow hit two baskets and opened up Jones for another to spark a 15-2 run that put the Blue Devils up 45-32.
“We just have to play better and play smarter and play more together,” Winslow said. “When a team comes out and has all the momentum, you just have to match their intensity.”
Connecticut cut the lead to six after the four-minute mark as Terrence Samuel grabbed the long rebound off a Winslow miss from three. Winslow got back to block Samuel's layup attempt, but Facey had an easy putback to cut the lead to 57-51. Samuel was injured on Winslow's follow-through and hobbled off the court with assistance.
Winslow’s efforts sparked Duke again at that point, and the Blue Devils looked as though they were going to put the Huskies away. This time, Winslow drained a three then came up big on the other end, stealing Boatright's pass across the lane. Duke capitalized on the turnover as Jones drained two free throws.
As often was the story on the night, Boatright kept the Huskies close, draining an off-balance 3-pointer to cut the lead to six again with just 2:01 to play. The Husky captain led all scorers with 22 points, knocking down all three of the team’s 3-pointers and crossing up Blue Devil defenders to single-handedly keep his team in the game.
Okafor, who drew double teams from Kevin Ollie’s Connecticut squad all night, took advantage of a rare one-on-one opportunity to drive baseline against Brimah. The Husky center could not keep up, getting called for his fifth foul and sending Okafor to the line.
The Duke freshman, who scored just 12 points on the night, missed his free throws, but Winslow made the key play for the Blue Devils once again—grabbing the offensive board and scoring the tip-in to halt Connecticut’s momentum and ice the game at 64-56.
“Coach just wanted me to step my game up,” Winslow said. “So after that basket, I kind of just looked at him like, ‘I got you coach.’”
Despite coming off a career-high 40-point game Sunday, Brimah took himself out of the game for Connecticut, playing just 13 minutes. The sophomore struggled with fouls last year, averaging more than seven per 40 minutes, but had cut that average in half this season. Thursday, however, Brimah picked up his first foul just 12 seconds in and picked up another nearly every time he made a play on the ball—and even picked up an off-ball foul as well.
Although Okafor did not capitalize in the scoring column against the Brimah-less Huskies, he did find fellow big man Amile Jefferson open often, and the junior forward put up 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Like Winslow and Okafor, Jones also showed growing pains in his tenth game as a Blue Devil, recording three giveaways including an errant pass at the end of the first half on what could have extended the Duke lead to seven. But when the score got close, Jones played his best, and from the line, the freshman knocked down 9-of-10 free throws—more than the entire Connecticut squad—to power the Blue Devils.
“With a young team, with any team, you can get a little bit annoyed with how hard people play against you and you have to get to playing that hard,” Krzyzewski said. “So I was annoyed with them, but they responded.”
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