Thirty-Three Minutes of Domination, Seven Hanging On: Duke Beats Washington at the Garden
Posted by mpatton on December 10th, 2011Duke dominated the first 33 minutes of today’s game versus Washington in Madison Square Garden. Absolutely dominated. With seven minutes to play, Duke was up 19. It wasn’t really that close. Washington‘s offense had come to life after an abysmal first half, but the Huskies put on an offensive show the last seven minutes. In that period, Washington went 12-15 from the field and 6-8 from the free throw line to score 28 points. It held Duke to 0-1 from the field (because of all the fouls), 13-22 from the charity stripe and forced five Duke turnovers. Foul trouble in the backcourt made Duke’s near-collapse even more noticeable. Seth Curry and Austin Rivers were the first to go, leaving the Blue Devils without their most consistent free throw shooter and their best isolation player. It also left a depleted backcourt to deal with constant penetration from Washington’s guards.
Tony Wroten Was Washington's MVP in a Loss to Duke. (Frank Franklin II/AP)
But, obviously, the game was 40 minutes long. In the first half Duke shut Washington’s offense down, only allowing the Huskies to shoot 32% from the field for a meager 26 points. The Blue Devils forced turnovers, converted in transition, and took advantage of ten offensive rebounds. For most of this time, other than Tony Wroten, the Huskies looked totally lost on offense. Madison Square Garden was rocking with the crowd entirely composed of Duke and Washington fans so much that it was easy to forgot that today’s event was a double-header. The Husky fans were outnumbered significantly, but the building was loudest when Lorenzo Romar’s team cut the lead to single digits. The second loudest moment was when Mason Plumlee made his first free throw.
Duke’s stars in the first half were Rivers, Andre Dawkins and Plumlee. Ryan Kelly went 2-10 from the field. He played terribly. But he came out as aggressive as ever in the second half and ended up as Duke’s third-leading scorer with 16 points. Rivers built on his solid first half with a good second half as well. But the story of the game was Tyler Thornton and Plumlee. Thornton played more minutes in the first half than any other Duke player. He locked down Abdul Gaddy and was a huge part of why Washington struggled so much on offense. But he picked up three fouls in just over a minute and with about 16 minutes left in the second half that forced Mike Krzyzewski to go to Seth Curry at point guard.
Plumlee played a great game from everywhere but the foul line. He finished 5-8 from the field with nine rebounds, two blocks and three steals. Unfortunately, he also finished 2-11 from the charity stripe. In the second half it became abundantly clear that the Husky players had the green light to foul Plumlee whenever he got the ball in a position to score. If his free throw shooting improves, he’ll be one of the top big men in the ACC. He already has several offensive moves in his post game, works very hard on the boards, and is Duke’s second-best defender.
In the end, Washington’s second half run was too little too late. But Wroten played like a star with Mason Plumlee and Rivers boosting their respective draft stocks as well. Washington has some very good players, but right now the team struggles to take advantage of all of its skills. It needs to get a lot more consistency to even win the down Pac-12 this season. I think the biggest winner from Duke’s standpoint is Thornton. He was still a non-factor offensively, but it’s hard to argue with the results of playing him nearly all of the first half. I expect to see him continue to start for the Blue Devils unless Quinn Cook really improves. The Blue Devils also showed that, for three quarters of the game, they can really guard athletic teams.
