Balanced effort leads Duke men's basketball to 112-68 win in first exhibition

<p>Sophomore Grayson Allen struggled in the first half, scoring just three points before tweaking his ankle in the second.</p>

Sophomore Grayson Allen struggled in the first half, scoring just three points before tweaking his ankle in the second.

A lot of things went right Friday night for the Blue Devils, who opened exhibition play with a convincing win against the Division II national champions. But the victory may have come at a cost.

Six Blue Devils reached double-figures as Duke defeated Florida Southern 112-68 Friday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in its first tune-up game of the season. Freshman Derryck Thornton led all scorers with 22 points after starting the game on the bench, and Amile Jefferson turned in a double-double of 13 points, 12 rebounds and six assists to fuel a dominant low-post effort against the Moccasins.

The Blue Devils received an injury scare when junior Matt Jones—who scored 15 points—suffered a groin injury in the second half and headed to the locker room for evaluation. The DeSoto, Texas, native was not available to answer questions after the game. Sophomore Grayson Allen tweaked his left ankle, but said that it was not serious.

“Hopefully it’s not a bad groin pull, but something happened with [Jones’] groin,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I’m not sure what happened with Grayson, but he got banged up a little bit on that fall.”

After the first 2:05, the Blue Devils appeared well on their way to a rout. Jones splashed home two 3-pointers and a pair of Marshall Plumlee hook shots put the Blue Devils up 10-0.

But when the starters came out, the Moccasins caught fire from downtown and clawed their way back. Behind 3-pointers from Sheldon Zablotny, Florida Southern fought to within 26-22, but would get no closer.

“I think during the night, when we had the shaky runs, when they kind of caught up to us a little bit, we kind of took off plays [defensively],” freshman Luke Kennard said.

With tempers running a bit high—Allen and Zablotny had to be separated after a bit of jawing—the Blue Devils took control, rattling off a 16-6 spurt capped by a two-handed dunk by freshman Brandon Ingram in transition.

When Jefferson and Plumlee returned to action, they continued to dominate the paint. Florida Southern racked up 17 first-half fouls—many of which turned into and-one opportunities for the Blue Devils—and Duke’s starting big men combined for 27 points and 21 rebounds on 11-of-13 shooting.

The Blue Devils forced the issue in the paint and were rewarded for their efforts, heading to the line time and again and converting 21-of-30 attempts. On the other end of the floor, Florida Southern attempted three free-throws all night.

“The turning point was defensive stops, and then it led to offense when we got two threes back-to-back,” Ingram said. “They got a couple easy drops…. [b]ut after we locked down we kind of went into a zone a little bit, and we just took the three-point [line] away.”

Another run allowed Duke to pull away before intermission. The Blue Devils finished the frame on a 7-0 run in the last 47 seconds thanks to a late Ingram lay-up to go up 64-40 at the half.

Thornton stole the show for the Blue Devils in the second half. After coming off the bench to start the game, the Chatsworth, Calif., native got the starting nod to open the final frame and came alive, pouring in 13 points and shooting 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. After a shaky debut at Countdown to Craziness Oct. 17, the freshman did not commit a single turnover Friday.

“Me being a little bit younger than everybody else and just being a point guard, it takes some time, but I’m starting to turn the [corner],” Thornton said. “I think the biggest difference really is building a relationship with the guys.... We did a great job tonight of pushing and just having fun out there.”

Allen struggled for three points in the first half and finished the game with nine on 3-of-9 shooting. But Kennard picked up some of the scoring slack—finishing with 14 points and two 3-pointers—but needed 14 field goal attempts.

The Blue Devil defense clamped down in the second half, holding the Moccasins to just 28 points in the frame. The defensive tenacity fed a transition offense that strung together 12 fast break points and 17 points off of 12 Florida Southern turnovers.

“The main thing is we stopped their transition,” Krzyzewski said. “We started adjusting where instead of picking them up a little bit higher, we got a little back.”

Dominique Williams, Michael Volovic and Trey Moore combined for 38 points for Florida Southern, but a number of turnovers in the second half and poor looks far from the basket allowed the Blue Devils to erase any chance of a comeback.

Duke will take on Livingstone Wednesday to finish its exhibition slate before opening the regular season Nov. 13 at home against Siena.

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