NEW YORK—At Madison Square Garden for the 59th time in their history, the 21st-ranked Blue Devils look to close their neutral-site slate with a win against No. 10 Baylor. With the first half of the game behind it, Duke leads the Bears 34-32:
Cameron North
The World’s Most Famous Arena has been a kind venue to the Blue Devils throughout the years, with Duke holding an all-time 40-18 record and having won five straight games at the venue. Through 20 minutes of play Wednesday night, the Blue Devils have looked right at home, just as their record indicates, with a near-capacity crowd and vocal support section making this feel as close to a home game as Duke will get outside Durham. Baylor brought a substantial crowd as well, but had trouble exerting the same level of audible influence as its counterparts in blue.
Madison Square guardin’
While sophomore center Kyle Filipowski has been Duke’s standout scorer this season, it was a revised backcourt that provided the Blue Devils an early spark against the Bears. The trio of Jeremy Roach, Jared McCain and Caleb Foster combined for all 11 of Duke’s points before the first media timeout and 24 by half’s end. Their ability to create shots off the dribble against stout defense was their clearest advantage on Baylor, a team which won a national championship in 2021 for that exact thing.
Swings on the boards
Duke’s guards may have done most of the scoring, but its frontcourt did most of the rebounding. The sophomore pair of Filipowski and Mark Mitchell logged a joint eight boards by the close of the half and the team as a whole put together 17. The Blue Devils initially turned their advantage into scores, such as one illustrative sequence near the midway point of the first half, where both Mitchell and Filipowski pulled the ball down and dished out to their guards, with Roach’s initial attempt from deep sailing just wide and McCain’s wide-open follow up falling through silently. Baylor surged to close the half, however, and finished with 18 rebounds and 11 second-chance points — both more than Duke could muster.
Out of hibernation
In contrast to the Blue Devils’ offensive fluidity, the Bears found it somewhat tough to discover a similar level of synergy early on. After the under-eight media timeout, however, Baylor woke itself up and started to chip away, turning a 10-point crater into a one-point pothole. Scheyer was forced to call a timeout after a nearly three-minute scoring drought punctuated by a brutal put-back slam from Yves Missi, and the Bears took the advantage just thereafter. Baylor hardly looked the part of its top-10 ranking for much of the half but found its footing when it counted.
Player of the half: Jared McCain
Within the most effective unit on the floor — Duke’s guard room — it only feels right that the half’s best player was its best player. The 6-foot-3 McCain, playing off the ball while Foster took up the point, was a shooting threat throughout and effective on the fast break. The Sacramento, Calif., native led the Blue Devils in scoring with 11 points and was perfect from the stripe, spearheading the early dominance from his team’s backcourt that torched the Bears before they grabbed the fire extinguisher and could cause some damage of their own.
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Andrew Long is a Trinity junior and sports editor of The Chronicle's 119th volume.