The Cavaliers have a bitter history in historic Cameron Indoor Stadium, but they are halfway to turning the things around and avoiding a 17th straight loss in Durham.
Duke trails No. 7 Virginia 34-31 after one half of play at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Freshman Brandon Ingram took awhile to heat up but leads all scorers with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor—including a 2-of-5 clip from downtown. The Blue Devil defense has struggled to contain the Cavaliers' top offensive threats—Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill—who combined for 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting through the first 20 minutes.
It was all guards to start. Sophomore Grayson Allen and freshman Derryck Thornton opened scoring with back-to-back charges through the paint with little resistance to help Duke jump out to a quick 4-0 lead.
But Virginia's defense clamped down, forcing the Blue Devils to hoist from the perimeter for most of the rest of the half. On the other end, senior center Mike Tobey scored eight quick points off the bench as the Cavaliers used a 15-1 run to build a 25-14 lead and force a Duke timeout.
Ingram stalled the run by sinking a jumper from just inside the arc, but Cavalier forward Isaiah Wilkins followed up with an unforgiving slam and a heavily contested tip in to put Virginia up by 11 heading into the under-eight minute timeout.
Duke found some momentum of its own from there. After a number of defensive stops on both ends, Thornton put the Blue Devils on the board with a pull-up jumper. Jones followed suit with a quick 3-pointer, and Ingram forced the Cavaliers' head coach Tony Bennett to call timeout with a mid-range jumper that cut Virginia's lead to four.
Ingram stayed hot after the timeout, scoring eight straight points—six on back-to-back 3-pointers and the other two on a monstrous dunk in traffic, forcing another Virginia timeout.
Here are some observations from the first half:
- There were plenty of Duke basketball alumni in attendance for Saturday's power matchup, including Jahlil Okafor, Tyus Jones, Nolan Smith, Sean Kelly and Todd Zafirovski.
- Cameron Indoor also played host to future Blue Devil Frank Jackson and Class of 2017 recruit Kevin Knox.
- Duke is still feeling the effects of not having senior captain Amile Jefferson—who was averaging a double-double before sustaining a foot fracture in December—as the Blue Devils trail the Cavaliers 16-10 on the boards.
- The Cavalier bench has outscord Duke's 11-0 so far, with most of those coming from Tobey.
- The Blue Devils have just one offensive rebound.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.