Duke Rolls By Notre Dame, 88-66

Duke rebounded from its first home conference loss with an 88-66 win over a depleted Notre Dame team Monday night, running their record to 19-3, 7-3 in the ACC.

Duke dominated almost from the beginning but had to survive an Irish rally in the second half before using an 18-0 run to break it open.

Marvin Bagley III scored the game’s first four points but didn’t score for the rest of the half, partly a result of an oppressive Notre Dame defense and partly the result of some close misses, 1-7 in the opening stanza, missed dunks by both Bagley and Wendell Carter, Jr.

“We left a lot of points on the floor, missed dunks,” Mike Krzyzewski said.” It had to be very frustrating for Marvin. We got off to a great start, but it didn’t show up on the scoreboard. I’m glad they stayed in it. I don’t think they can play harder. But those shots usually will go in for him. It was just one of those nights for him. He played well but he didn’t play great. And we’ve been accustomed to great. But it was a close thing. It was right there.”

Notre Dame led only once, at 5-4, before a 15-4 run gave Duke it first double-digit lead, 3-pointers by Gary Trent, Jr. and Grayson Allen keying the run.

“If there’s a lot of attention on one guy, that opens it up for Gary and me,” Allen said. “Even on drives, they were focusing on Marvin, which opened lots of kick-outs for open shots, them moving and scrambling and trying to guard Marvin.”

The half ended with Duke up 42-34. The Blue Devils were 6-12 on 3s and had a 25-18 rebounding edge. But seven Duke turnovers, against only four for the Irish partially negated Duke’s rebounding edge.

John Mooney hit four of five 3-pointers, the rest of the team was 0-10.

Bagley got hot early, and Duke extended its lead to 50-37 early in the second half. But T.J. Gibbs, Jr. sparked a Notre Dame run and it was 58-52, with 12:21 left, some careless Duke turnovers leaving the door open.

Trevon Duval had a shaky first half, four points, two turnovers and no assists, while Gibbs racked up 11 points.

Duval says he and Gibbs have known each other since middle school and calls Gibbs “like my brother.”

You know how brothers can squabble.

Duval came out fired up for the second half, an assist for a Bagley dunk, a steal and 3-point play, another assist to Bagley - this time for a 3-pointer - and then a floater in the lane, all in the first three minutes of the second half.

So, when Duval found himself open and Duke’s lead down to six, he didn’t hesitate.

Nothing but net. 61-52 and it was never close again.

“That’s the guy we want shooting against the zone,” Mike Brey said. “But he made a big one and that’s when the floodgates opened.”

“It felt pretty good,” Duval said. “I felt confident taking the shot. I was wide open, so I took it. I love the fact that teams want me to take that shot because I’ve been working on it and I believe it’s going to go in every time and I think my coaches and teammates do to.”

Allen had five quick points and Carter added four and it was 70-56.

“We hung for about 28 minutes before they wore us down,” Brey lamented. “That offensive run they had in the second half broke our back.”

Duke scored 28 points in a span of about eight minutes, culminating in a Trent 3 that made it 86-59. It was the last of Trent’s six 3-pointers—in 10 attempts. He added 10 rebounds, his second-double double.

Trent has hit 26 of his last 43 3-pointers.

Duke also got a boost from its bench, especially sophomore forward Jack White, who grabbed seven rebounds in 14 minutes. He also scored five points, including his second career 3-pointer.

Duke got 12 rebounds from its bench.

Krzyzewski called White’s crowd-please performance a “great thing. He sparks you. How happy our guys were for him.”

Indeed. Duke’s post-game locker room was a Jack-White pep rally.

“Jack is the ultimate team guy,” Allen said. “He’s never going to be about himself. So, when he does something like that, everybody’s happy. He put the cherry on top.”

Duke hits the road for three games, before coming back to Cameron for Virginia Tech, on Valentine’s Day.

“You worry about a hangover,” Krzyzewski said, referencing the tough loss to Virginia. “I thought our team showed a lot of maturity.”

“We really wanted to play today,” Allen added. “We wanted to get back on the floor.”

NOTES

All five Duke starters scored in double figures, Trent leading with 22. Allen added 18, with eight assists. Krzyzewski said it was Allen’s best game in some time. Bagley ended with 12 points and eight rebounds (4-14 from the field), Carter 17 and seven, Duval 12 points and four second-half assists.

Duke outrebounded Notre Dame 43-27, with 24 second-chance points.

Duke had 12 turnovers, Notre Dame 10.

Playing without Bonzie Colson and Matt Ferrell, Note Dame has dropped six straight—all in the ACC- and falls to 13-9 overall, 3-6 in the league.

Gibbs led them with 22 points, shooting 6-16, while Mooney added 14.

• No. 4 Duke uses a late 18-0 run to blow past Notre Dame 88-66
• As Notre Dame runs out of bodies, there’s only so much magic Mike Brey can make happen
• Jack White gives Duke a spark in win over Notre Dame
• Trent, No. 4 Duke bounce back by routing Irish 88-66
• Duke men’s basketball pulls away in second half for bounce-back blowout of Notre Dame
• Make Cameron Great Again
• Box Score (PDF)
• Season Stats (HTML)
• Season Stats (PDF)
• Postgame Notes (PDF)
• Duke Player Quotes
• Notre Dame Quotes
• Dominant Duke way too much for Notre Dame