Any questions that may have lingered about Cameron Boozer after Duke’s win over UCF were answered in Knoxville as the freshman stepped up with 24 points and 23 rebounds against one of America’s most physical defenses.
It wasn’t a perfect game for Duke but there were some good things as we see Duke’s offense starting to take form. this team has grown a lot since the UCF game.
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Cameron Boozer went into halftime with 13 points and 15 rebounds, which is crazy against a physical, experienced team like Tennessee. We don’t remember the last time a Duke player got 15 rebounds in a half, and we’d bet a chicken dinner that no freshman has ever done that before.
Duke was somewhat limited when Patrick Ngongba picked up two early fouls then a third well before halftime, and as expected Tennessee’s defense was physical and demanding. And of course, Jon Scheyer is holding Maliq Brown out still. At one point, Duke had a 1-8 streak before Isaiah Evans broke it.
As well as Boozer played, he made a mistake on defense in the first half when he had his head turned away from the ball. It went to the corner and the Vols nailed a three to make it 32-25.
Back on the positive side, this is the second game in a row where we saw Boozer nail a cross-court pass through the Tennessee defense. It was powerful and instinctive, and it’s going to be great if he can do that. He also hit some beautiful outlet passes, which will also be a huge asset.
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Still, Duke struggled against Tennessee’s offense in the first half. On the bright side, the Devils held star freshman Nate Ament to 3-10, but Deway Brown had 10 and Felix Okpara finished the half with seven.
Duke assisted on 7-13 baskets while Tennessee got help on 11-19. The Vols hit 48.7 overall and 31.3 on threes. For their part, Duke hit 35.1 percent overall and 37.5 from behind the line.
The Blue Devils got a surprising break from the free throw line as Tennessee missed all four attempts while Duke – well, Cameron Boozer – hit 5-7.
No one else got to the line.
We saw good signs from Nik Khamenia, who just needs time to mature into a more physically imposing player. Dame Sarr played and got a nice dunk on a break.
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Bottom line: Boozer kept Duke in it in the first half, but he needs more help.
Duke came out more aggressively to start the second half and especially Isaiah Evans, who opened things with a beautiful drive for a dunk and then got a three shortly after that to gibe Duke its first lead, 47-45.
Duke went up 51-49 before Ja’Kobi Gillespie hit a three.
Boozer matched it with a three of his own 54-52 and then Khamenia hit a drive to put Duke up 56-52.
Patrick Ngongba hit a nice jump hook and then Cayden Boozer drove to put Duke up 60-52.
The Vols pushed back and cut the lead to 62-60 with 11:43 left then Duke stretched the lead back out to 71-62.
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Tennessee never went away though, and though they stepped their defense up in the closing minutes, including a tremendous late steal by Gillespie with Duke up 77-72 with about :40 to go, cutting the lead down to 77-74. Tennessee put Caleb Foster on the line with 30.4 left and he hit both to put Duke back up 79-74.
Gillespie missed for the Vols and they put Ngongba on the line and he hit both as well to put the Devils up 81-74.
Gillespie hit his then Duke went back to the line with 3.9 left and up 81-76. Evans hit his to give Duke an 83-76 win. Both teams got what they were after in this. Great game all around.
Notes….Ngongba had two near steals in the second half including one where he dove into the stands…Evans went hard to the basket several times, a big change from his freshman year…defense was much better in the second half…overall rebounding too…Ngongba was completely different, much more aggressive…Sarr showed some real flashes in his first outing for Duke…we had some concerns about Duke inside but Boozer was sensational and Ngongba played with some real fire…when Brown is back, inside play should be a huge strength for Duke…next up…Texas in Charlotte…
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