Duke Blows By BC And Former Blue Devil Derryck Thornton, 88-49

It didn’t take long for Duke to end any suspense about extending that 3-point streak.

Alex O’Connell knocked down a trey 37 seconds into Duke’s game against Boston College Tuesday night, extending Duke’s streak to 1,072 games with a made 3-pointer.

It didn’t take much longer to end any suspense about the outcome of the game, which Duke won 88-49.

The last time it was close was 12-8 Duke, six minutes into the game. That’s when Duke went on a 7-0 run, holding the Eagles at 8 for 6 minutes.

The short-handed Eagles--their best post player, senior Nick Popovic is out with a back injury--never came close to getting back into the game. In fact, at intermission freshman forward Matthew Hurt had outscored BC 20-19.

Duke led 45-19 at that point.

Hurt said he found his rhythm early and just stuck with it.

“It’s a boost to my confidence,” he said. “I’ve had some bad games this year but I never try to get too low and try to stay even.”

Hurt hit 4-of 6 from beyond the arc in the first half, had a stick-back off a Vernon Carey miss and posted up several times.

Hurt has given Duke 98 points in 7 games since going scoreless against Georgetown.

“Just before break he played well against Winthrop,” Mike Krzyzewski said, “and then he came back and played well against Brown. He’s a little bit stronger, a few pounds heavier. He is one of the main guys who is talking more on defense and offense and as a result his movements are stronger. That’s just a part of growing up.”

The game also marked the return of Tre Jones, playing his first game since Virginia Tech back on December 6.

Jones admitted he was a little rusty early and never did find his shot. But he had 10 assists against a single turnover, while grabbing 5 rebounds.

“It felt good just to get back going. You can only do so much in work outs. It’s not really a game anymore. After the first few minutes, getting my feet back under me, it felt good.”

Another sub-theme was the return to Cameron of former Blue Devil Derryck Thornton, playing as a grad-student transfer after spending three years at Southern Cal.

Jones helped make Thornton’s life miserable, 3-for-12 shooting, 2 turnovers.

“Trying to make it as difficult as we could the entire game,” Jones said of his defense on Thornton. “We know he’s a really explosive guard who likes to get to the rim, so we tried to keep him from getting to the rim and Vernon and Javin (DeLaurier) really protected the rim well tonight.”

Duke’s first-half dominance included a 24-14 rebounding advantage, 11 assists on 18 made field goals and 53 percent shooting. BC, by comparison, had 3 assists, 11 turnovers and shot 29 percent from the field, 1-for-8 on 3s.

Duke had a few lulls in the second half, once forcing Mike Krzyzewski to call a time out. But for the most part Duke kept its foot on the gas pedal, a 7-0 BC run their best effort.

Of course, that cut Duke’s margin from 33 to 26 and it took Duke a couple of minutes to get the lead back into the 30s and then the 40s before a late BC basket made the final margin 39.

Calling it a team victory is an understatement. No one played more than Hurt’s 26 minutes, 10 players played at least 12 minutes, 11 players scored at least 3 points, 8 players hit a 3-pointer.

Joey Baker says Duke can leverage that depth all season.

“We’re able to wear people down. We have people come off the bench and there’s no drop-off. If anything we take it up another notch. That’s tough, because (there are) not a lot of teams that have that same depth so we can wear teams down, run them. Everybody brings something to the table and somebody can step up anytime.”

“It’s a team where everybody knows that what they do can contribute to winning and that it’s important,” Krzyzewski added.

NOTES

Hurt ended with a season-high 25 points. Wendell Moore was the only other Blue Devil in double figures, with 11 points. Carey had a modest 9 points in 20 minutes but led everyone with 9 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Duke ended with a 44-34 rebounding advantage, with 20 assists, 9 steals and 7 blocks, while shooting 51.5 percent from the field, 42.9 percent (12-28) on 3s. It was a season best on made 3-pointers.

Justin Robinson hit a 3-pointer for his first points of the season. The grad-student Krzyzewski calls the smartest player on the team has 7 blocks and 6 rebounds in 32 minutes this season.

C.J. Felder was BC’s only double-figure scorer, with 13 points.

Duke is 12-1 on the season, 2-0 in the ACC and visits Miami next, Saturday night at 8 P.M.

Boston College drops to 8-6, 2-1 ACC after wins over Wake Forest and Notre Dame.

The win was Duke’s 300^th of the decade that Krzyzewski said was the best of his four at Duke.

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