Beyond the arc: Duke men's basketball vs. Marist

Duke opened the regular season with a convincing 94-49 win against Marist at Cameron Indoor Stadium, though freshmen Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum and Marques Bolden were all sidelined with injuries. Five Blue Devils scored in double figures and nine played at least 10 minutes in the win.

Revisiting the three keys to the game:

• Dominate the boards: Even without two of its best rebounders in Giles and Bolden, Duke still managed to outrebound Marist 56-33 and pull down 16 offensive boards. Amile Jefferson, Chase Jeter, Javin DeLaurier, Antonio Vrankovic and Luke Kennard all grabbed at least eight rebounds in the victory, marking career highs for all but Jefferson and Kennard. Vrankovic also had seven offensive rebounds, as the Blue Devils managed to fill the void left by the injuries to the star freshmen.
• Find the open shooters behind the arc: The Blue Devils shot 36.4 percent from beyond the arc and held Marist to just 12.0 percent shooting from deep. Matt Jones was 3-for-6 from 3-point range, and Grayson Allen and Kennard each knocked down a pair of triples Friday.
• Convert from the charity stripe: After struggling during the exhibition games, Duke’s free-throw woes continued Friday. The Blue Devils missed 11 shots at the line, and were outshot by the Red Foxes 84.2 percent to 70.3 percent from the charity stripe. Allen was 8-for-9 from the line and Jack White scored all five of his points on foul shots, but DeLaurier continued his struggles from the charity stripe Friday, going 0-for-2. The freshman forward has now missed his last seven free-throw attempts dating back to the exhibitions.

Three key stats:

• Duke has just 10 turnovers: After struggling to maintain possession of the ball against Augustana and Virginia State, the Blue Devils limited themselves to just 10 turnovers Friday, with no individual coughing the ball up more than two times. Duke turned it over at least 15 times in both of its exhibition games.
• Antonio Vrankovic gets 10 rebounds: Vrankovic played just 14 minutes all of last season as a freshman, scoring a total of four points and grabbing just seven rebounds. The 7-foot center surpassed all of those numbers with a five-point, 10-rebound performance in the first regular-season game of 2016-17. Vrankovic played 19 minutes in the game.
• Frank Jackson scores 18 points off the bench: Although he did not get the starting nod in the opener, freshman Frank Jackson showed why he was one of the top recruits in the nation. Jackson had 18 points, four assists and an impressive four steals in his regular-season debut, bottling up Marist's skilled backcourt and helping to hold the Red Foxes to just 23.1 percent shooting during the game.

Three key plays

• 4:27 remaining, first half: Marist's Isaiah Lamb received a pass with an open lane to the basket after a backdoor cut behind Allen, but Allen made an athletic recovery to leap and block Lamb's layup into the hands of Kennard. Allen sped down the court to the left corner, where he knocked down a 3-pointer off an assist from Jackson 11 seconds later.
• 0:33 remaining, first half: Jefferson swatted away a runner in the lane by Ritchie MItchell, and the ball went to Jones up the floor to start a transition opportunity that Allen finished with a layup. Mitchell grabbed Jefferson's leg when he fell to the floor after he got blocked—sending the Blue Devil captain to the floor with him—and was called for a flagrant foul when the officials reviewed the play.
• 10:37 remaining, second half: Brian Parker telegraphed a pass in the backcourt to the Red Foxes' Khallid Hart, as Jones jumped into the passing lane for a steal and took the ball to the other end of the floor for a left-handed slam, much to the delight of the Duke bench and the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium. It was the second straight game with a dunk for the senior guard who is not known for his leaping ability.

And the Duke game ball goes to…. Luke Kennard: 

---