WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Duke's freshmen were unfazed by the first true road game of their college careers, though about as many Blue Devil fans made the short trip to watch them play as Wake Forest fans at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
No. 1 Duke picked up a methodical 87-65 victory against the Demon Deacons Tuesday night, its first win in an ACC road opener in three years. Freshman Zion Williamson led the way with a career-high 30 points on 13-of-16 shooting and 10 rebounds, and classmates R.J. Barrett and Cam Reddish joined him in double figures, with the change of scenery helping Reddish start to break out of a long slump.
"[Zion] is a complete player, and so efficient, to get 30 points on 16 shots, and one miss was a dunk, and he’s sharing the ball. Our guys are very unselfish, but he’s a very special player," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "When he and R.J. are playing—for good portions of tonight’s game, those two guys were playing at a really high level."
Duke (13-1, 2-0 in the ACC) struggled to pull away from the Demon Deacons in the first half, never taking a double-digit lead as Wake Forest stayed in it by controlling the offensive glass early. Five-star freshman Jaylen Hoard pulled down eight rebounds before the break, though he finished with just nine to go along with 13 points, and the Demon Deacons (7-7, 0-2) capitalized on many of their second chances.
"The negative of tonight’s game, we gave up 19 offensive boards," Krzyzewski said. "Anytime we rebounded defensively, we had the fast break, so there was going to be stuff in the lane, and when we didn’t, they got second shots. When we get our transition going, we're better."
The Blue Devils leaned on their quartet of freshman starters to stay in front for the majority of the game. Reddish had two early turnovers and missed his first three shots in what looked like it could become another long night for the 6-foot-8 forward, but Duke got two offensive rebounds on one possession seven minutes into the half and kept feeding him before he attacked the rim with a baseline drive for a dunk.
Reddish's last two shots of the first half were the Blue Devils' biggest two shots of the night—a made 3-pointer that broke a 28-28 tie to give Duke the lead for good and another triple near the top of the key in the closing seconds of the half that gave the Blue Devils' their largest cushion before the break at 42-34.
"Especially when a young kid hasn’t played to the level that he thinks he can play at and we think he can play at, you get down a little bit. You put pressure on yourself, and I thought he was tight to begin with," Krzyzewski said. "Then he made that dunk, that was big, and then we called a timeout and put in four shooters with Tre, and we thought there was a chance one of them might get a three, and he was the guy and he knocked it down. It was a big shot, a really big shot for us in the game."
Reddish wasn't the only freshman to get hot from downtown. Williamson shot 3-of-4 from long distance, firing away with the confidence he showed during Duke's preseason Canada tour in August after entering the night converting just 19 percent of his 3-point attempts in the regular season.
"I do have a lot of confidence, but I haven’t really been shooting it so much that my first instinct is just to drive," Williamson said. "But I've spent multiple hours after practice just shooting threes, shooting jumpers and if I miss, just move onto the next shot because that’s just how basketball works."
Barrett also knocked down a triple for the Blue Devils' first points of the game before doing most of his damage around the basket the rest of the way, finishing with 21 points.
With all of the nation's top three recruits scoring well, Duke's final five-star freshman—point guard Tre Jones—continued to excel at creating opportunities for his teammates. The nation's leader in assist-to-turnover ratio dished out seven more dimes with just one giveaway.
The Blue Devils scored four points on the first play of the second half with the help of an offensive rebound on a missed free throw and went on a 10-3 run in the first two minutes after the break to build a 15-point lead. Barrett, Williamson and Reddish were responsible for all 10 points, and Duke gradually stretched its advantage the rest of the way.
It was generally a quiet night for the Blue Devils' veterans, but junior Javin DeLaurier did inch closer to the ACC record for consecutive made field goals. The 6-foot-10 forward was 3-for-3 to get to 18 made shots in a row, two shy of tying the record. Fellow captain Jack White continued his impressive defensive play with four blocks in the first half despite struggling to make his usual impact as a perimeter shooter, and junior Marques Bolden got three late buckets in the paint to finish with 12 points.
"Marques and Javin, together they had 20 and 15 tonight," Krzyzewski said. "You get that and the defense that they play, it makes us a better team."
Duke will face a much bigger road test Saturday afternoon in Tallahassee, Fla., for a showdown with No. 13 Florida State.
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