Nolan Smith scores 24 as Blue Devils soar past Eagles in Cameron
In Pictures - PHOTO GALLERY
Top Plays (and G. Henderson Interview)
Turning Point
After a slow first half, the Blue Devils opened the second stanza on a 22-6 run and never looked back.
Blue Devil Ballers
Nolan Smith continued his fine season by matching his career high with 24 points (9-14 FG, 6-7 FT). Kyle Singler added a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards, while Miles Plumlee contributed 12 points (5-6 FG).
Duke Data
.653 – Miles Plumlee’s FG% on the year, a team best
5-0 – Duke’s record all-time against BC in Cameron
40-27 – Duke’s rebounding advantage in the game, including an 18-10 edge on the offensive glass
Coach K’s Comments
“We’re really pleased with the win. Our games against Boston College have always been hard, defensive games. Al [Skinner] is such a good coach and with a veteran team like this, points get hard to come by. We had two great games against them last year. The first 12 minutes or so I thought they outplayed us and the last eight minutes we started to pick up our defense a little bit. Then the second half we really played outstanding defense and executed some of the offensive sets really well. We got points off of turnovers. We got three or four live-ball turnovers that turned into points and all of a sudden we got that double digit lead. I thought we kept up our defense pretty well the whole second half. I’m happy to win. They played hard and we played hard, but we just played a little better defense tonight and got us a few points.”
Locker Room Reaction
The talk in the locker room was mostly about the strong second-half performance by the Blue Devils. The team came right out of the gate with a set play that resulted in a Miles dunk and rolled from there. Said Nolan, “Beginning of the second half, we started with defense. We were able to execute the play that we drew up at halftime. Miles got a dunk right off the bat. That keyed our defense. We got the crowd into it and our defense worked for us in the second half. It was the key to our win.”
Sixth Man
School resumed at Duke today so the students were back in full force in the Crazies section. An Earth, Wind & Scheyer sign made an appearance and this Crazie definitely came ready to support her Blue Devils.
Around the Web
Box Score — Stat recap
AP recap — Smith shines
Blue Devils soar past Eagles — Duke wins without the 3-ball
Duke impressive in win — Blue Devil vets step up
Postgame Quotes — Coach K and player reactions
Brothers band together — Plumlees among three sets of brothers in the ACC
Notes
*Former Blue Devils Clay Buckley, Greg Koubek and Gerald Henderson were in attendance. Buckley and Koubek were captains of Duke’s first NCAA championship team in 1991, and Henderson was a captain of last year’s squad.
*Next up: Wake Forest makes the drive to Durham for another ACC showdown in Cameron. The Blue Devils and Deacons will battle it out on Fox Sports Net beginning at 8 PM on Sunday.
Fave Photo
Tags: "boston college"
