Krzyzewski watches recruiting targets at Nike Global Challenge in Chicago

CHICAGO—The Duke coaching staff has plenty of experience signing top talent in the Windy City. Thursday, they came out to watch a handful of their recruiting targets in person.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski, associate head coach Jeff Capel and assistant coach Jon Scheyer were on hand at Whitney Young High School—the former stomping ground of Jahlil Okafor—to observe the action at the Nike Global Challenge.

In the evening session, Krzyzewski and Co. watched Class of 2017 point guard Trae Young lead his USA West squad to a come-from-behind 97-90 win against Canada. Young—who received an offer during his visit to Duke's campus last month—poured in a game-high 27 points, hitting 12-of-16 free throws and knocking down three 3-pointers.

Young pushed the ball in the open floor whenever possible, using a Euro-step to elude defenders and dished off a couple of flashy no-look passes. The 6-foot-1 floor general was also smart with the basketball and finished with four assists against just two turnovers. Young created contact that sent him flying to the floor multiple times, but always picked himself up off the hardwood. The rising junior from Norman, Okla., logged 32 minutes on the heels of a 10-point performance in his team's first game of the day.

Plagued by poor decisions and turnovers, USA West fell behind by as many as 13 early in the second quarter. But behind the play of Young and Jarred Vanderbilt—the No. 3 player in the 2017 ESPN 60—the West squad cut its halftime deficit to four. Young exploded in the fourth quarter as the West squad pulled away and used a couple of timely drives by 2017 guard Markus Howard—a Chandler, Ariz., native who attends Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev., the high school that produced incoming Blue Devil point guard Derryck Thornton—to hang on for the victory. The West squad went 2-0 on the opening day of the Challenge and will look to punch its ticket to Saturday's title game against USA Midwest Friday at 4 p.m.

Troy Brown Jr., a 6-foot-4 guard ranked sixth by ESPN in the Class of 2017 who also holds an offer to join the Blue Devils, was held to four points and five rebounds on 1-of-5 shooting against Canada after notching 13 points and seven rebounds in the first game of the day.

USA Midwest also improved to 2-0 after putting away the Dominican Republic in the last game of the night, 113-78. Five-star small forward Jayson Tatum—who became the first member of Duke's 2016 class when he committed at the Nike Peach Jam last weekend—is on the Midwest roster but did not play in either of his team's games Thursday. His team did just fine without him as 2016 big men Miles Bridges and Ohio State commit Derek Funderburk finished a couple emphatic dunks to help the Midwest jump out to a big lead it would never relinquish.

Gary Trent Jr., a shooting guard from Tyus Jones' Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, Minn., picked up two quick fouls against the Dominican Republic before his shots started to fall in the second half. Trent Jr.—the 8th-ranked recruit in the 2017 ESPN 60—scored a team-high 17 points in USA Midwest's 100-87 win against Canada earlier Thursday afternoon.