No. 7 Duke Fights Past No. 13 UConn 68-59
In Pictures - Click HERE for game photo gallery
Turning Point
The Blue Devils enjoyed a 12-0 run — during which five Duke players scored — to surge ahead 53-34 with around 13 minutes left. Overall, the game was won in the paint, with our bigs Lance, Zoubs, Miles and Ryan showing all kinds of fight on the boards. We outrebounded a tall, physical UConn team 52-48 and scored 15 second-chance points compared to eight by the Huskies.
Blue Devil Ballers
LT was everywhere, scoring 11 points and grabbing 10 boards while hounding the Huskies on the defensive end and battling for every rebound and loose ball. Zoubs had a great game as well, pulling down 11 boards (eight offensive) including a pair of offensive rebounds that led directly to Blue Devil three-pointers. You certainly can’t leave out the tournament MVP. Jon scored 19 points, dished out give dimes, had four boards, recorded three steals, was very steady all night handling the rock and played great defense on dangerous UConn guard Jerome Dyson.
Duke Data
4 – NIT Season Tip-Off titles won by Duke (all-time leader)
22-2 – Duke’s all-time record in the NIT Season Tip-Off
1,648 – Combined wins by Coach K and Jim Calhoun (NCAA record for most career wins between opposing coaches)
1950 – Last time Duke won when shooting under 30%
Coach K’s Comments
“It’s a big‑time game. Shots were so hard to come by. Open shots. Both teams are very, very good defensively. And you know, you get by one guy and it’s hard to get to the bucket. And we’ve not experienced a team like that this year. But we rebounded very well. We played outstanding defense. And I thought Thomas and Zoubek were the difference‑makers for us. They both had 11 rebounds. And Zoubek I thought had the biggest play in the first half where he got the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Singler for a 3 because points were tough to come by. In the second half he got one, and I don’t know how he got it out to Scheyer in the corner. He got it through about four guys and Scheyer hit that 3. And so on two of his offensive rebounds we got six points. We didn’t give up a 3 today. So when you get two possessions in this game, where you get six points, that’s a lot. We missed 53 shots and we had 56 rebounds. You know, that’s a very unusual game. But it’s a game where both teams played with a lot of heart and we feel very privileged to have won this game and the NIT Championship.”
Locker Room Reaction
Any of the guys on the team would tell you one of the reasons they chose Duke was to play in the biggest games on the biggest stages. It doesn’t get much bigger in the regular season than Duke/UConn at Madison Square Garden with a championship at stake. You could sense all week the guys were excited but also extremely focused. Lance’s summary of the game says it all:
“We wanted to win. We wanted to win big. It was a championship-level game. We didn’t shoot the ball well at all but we gutted it out. That game was not easy to win. We came out here on a business trip and we wanted to win. Everything we did was geared towards winning. Even at the Thanksgiving dinner we were talking about the game — How we were going to play, what we were going to do. It was something we really couldn’t get off our minds. To come out there and execute like that, there’s no better feeling. We knew what type of game it was going to be from the jump. We knew they were going to try to come out at our guys, try to go at Kyle, Jon and Nolan. There was an opportunity on the floor for the other guys to step up. Myself, Zoubs, and Miles played really big against their guys and they have a huge team. We knew that if we played our hearts out like that, the outcome was going to be a win. No better feeling. It was a great week.”
Sixth Man
It was an energetic crowd split about 60-40 between Duke and UConn fans. And of course the Blue Devil fans were louder! Thanks to all the Devil fans who came out to the Garden to support us, including this awesome guy and these diehard fans with a great sign.
Around the Web
Box Score – Stat recap
Coach K’s Quotes – Post-game reaction from the Duke Head Coach
“Unathletic” Duke Finds a Away — Blue Devils showed strength and speed against one of USA’s most athletic teams
LT’s Inspiration — One of the secret’s behind Lance’s outstanding performance
AP Recap — Duke wins it on the boards
Notes
*Jon was named NIT MVP with Nolan named to the All-Tourney team along with UConn’s Jerome Dyson and Kemba Walker and Arizona State’s Derek Glasser.
*Next Up: Devils travel to Wisconsin for an ACC/Big Ten Challenge showdown in Madison. The game tips at 9:15 PM on ESPN in front of what will be a rowdy Badgers crowd!
Fave Photo - Captains LT and Jon with the hardware that we came to NYC to get!
