After yet another sluggish start, the Blue Devils lead just 38-36 at halftime against Yale and trailed for much of the first half for the fourth straight game.
Duke allowed a layup by Jack Montague on the Bulldogs’ first possession, followed by an easy dunk by reigning Ivy League player of the year Justin Sears after a turnover by senior forward Amile Jefferson. The Bulldogs did not stop there, scoring the first nine points of the game to put the Blue Devils in an early hole.
Brandon Ingram was left out of Duke’s starting lineup for the second straight game, but first entered the contest with 17:36 remaining in the half with the Blue Devils trailing 9-0. He promptly knocked down a triple on his first possession on the floor and played with much more energy throughout the half than he showed last weekend in the 2K Classic. The Kinston, N.C., native scored nine points in the period.
Ingram’s 3-pointer stopped the bleeding, but Duke’s defense continued to be very porous. Another easy dunk—this time from senior Brandon Sherrod—extended Yale’s lead back to nine points, but a freshman again brought the Blue Devils back into the game with a triple. This time it was Luke Kennard, who knocked down a long-range shot from the wing.
It was half defined by runs, and Duke’s defense finally tightened up for a bit after the first few minutes, forcing several contested shots in a row to spark a 7-0 run to trim the deficit to 15-14. The Blue Devils finally took their first lead at 20-19 on a driving layup by Ingram with 9:48 remaining, but Yale responded with a run of its own with eight straight points.
The first four points of this run came on second chances for the Bulldogs when Duke was playing a small lineup, continuing a trend of poor rebounding that doomed the Blue Devils for much of the frame. Yale outrebounded Duke 18-11 and held a 12-3 advantage in second chance points.
Coming off an MVP performance in the 2K Classic, Grayson Allen had a quiet start to the game for the Blue Devils, but scored a team-high 12 points that all came in the final third of the half to help bring Duke back from a 27-20 deficit. Duke took the lead again on two Allen free throws to make it 33-31, but Yale took it right back on a trey by Blake Reynolds.
Two steals led to breakaway layups by Allen and Matt Jones in the final minute, giving Duke a 38-36 halftime lead.
Here are some observations from the first half:
- Ingram was not the only Duke player to make an impact on his first possession. Chase Jeter converted on a righty hook in the lane through a foul just after entering the game, but could not make the free throw that would have tied the game at 19.
- Duke played small-ball for a few minutes when Jeter replaced Plumlee, with a lineup of Grayson Allen, Derryck Thornton, Kennard, Jones and Jeter.
- Head coach Mike Krzyzewski went almost to mid-court at the first media timeout to argue with the referees after Jones was called for an offensive foul for pushing off his defender on his drive to the basket.
- Jefferson is in foul trouble for the second straight game after being whistled for his second with 11:59 remaining. He came close to a third after a collision on a drive to the basket late in the half, but Yale was instead whistled for a blocking foul that put the Philadelphia native on the line.
- Duke came out of the under-eight media timeout playing the 1-3-1 zone on defense that was very effective against Georgetown. The Blue Devils forced a shot clock violation on their first possession in the zone, but reverted to man-to-man after a Bulldog layup the next time down the floor.
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