Jim’s Take On Duke’s Championship Classic Win Over Kentucky

Freshmen Trevor Keels and Paolo Banchero led Duke to a 79-71 win over Kentucky in the season-opening Champions Classic in Madison Square Garden Tuesday night.

Note the placement of the names. Not that Banchero wasn’t everything he was advertised to be. Despite sitting out portions of the second half with leg cramps, Banchero had 22 points and 7 rebounds.

But Keels was the story. He led everyone with 25 points, many of them during a crucial stretch early in the second half, when Kentucky was putting an enormous amount of game pressure on a battered and cramping Duke team.

If you don’t have a rooting interest, it was a pretty compelling first half.

Of course, it was Duke and Kentucky, two of college basketball’s most polarizing programs, so lots of people have rooting interests here. Duke kept threatening to get some significant separation, five points at 13-8 and 25-20, then six at 31-25, then seven at 34-27 when Trevor Keels hit a 3-pointer, then seven again at 39-32.

But Keels’ bomb was Duke’s only 3-pointer of the game and Kentucky was 6-11 at the half. The Wildcats also out-rebounded Duke 25-21 in the opening stanza, with a dozen offensive boards giving them extra possessions, most of those offensive rebounds by West Virginia transfer Oscar Tshiebwe, who outplayed Duke’s Mark Williams and ended the game with a jaw-dropping 19 rebounds.

Then again Duke went to the line 17 times to Kentucky’s four. The Wildcats had 15 more points on 3-pointers, Duke had nine more points from the foul line.

And maybe Duke could have done a better job of guarding Davidson transfer Kellan Grady, who knocked down three of four from beyond the arc, the final one cutting Duke’s halftime lead to four.

Kentucky rode the momentum from that Grady three to a great start to the second half. They outscored Duke 7-2 to take their first lead, at 42-41. They subsequently led 44-43, 46-45 and 48-47.

But they could never extend that lead and Keels was a big reason why. He hit five field goals in a span of five minutes, two of which enabled Duke to regain the lead.

“So I knew when P went out somebody had to step up,” Keels said. “And that’s what I did. I kept looking at the score and I just made sure we was up and we was winning. That’s something that I look at all the time. I don’t really care about my points or nothing like that. It’s that we come out with the victory.”

Duke also got a huge boost from reserve center Theo John. With Banchero fighting cramps and Williams fighting foul trouble, John gave Duke a great assist on a backdoor pass to A.J. Griffin and muscled inside against a double team to give Duke its first double digit lead at 61-50.

“Four of our guys got cramps in the second half,”Krzyzewski noted. “Two of them had IVs. Paolo you had an IV, right, and Wendell [Moore]. And so our bench had to come through. And A.J. really gave us a big lift. And I think that was one of the keys to the game. And Theo. Thank goodness we have him with his physicality.”

A Banchero jumper put Duke up 69-54, with hints of a blow-out. But the Wildcats hung tough, an 11-0 run making it 69-65.

Guess who broke the run?

Yes, that would be Mr. Keels.

Then Banchero got an old-fashioned three-point play and Duke salted it away.

Duke never did get that perimeter game going and didn’t get much from the bench except for John and that Griffin layup. But you can still win a game by attacking the basket and Duke hit 30 of 48 from inside the arc and held Kentucky to 1 for 7 on 3s in the second half; Grady was scoreless after intermission.

And besides, no one wants to peak in November. Duke has five non-conference home games in an 11-day span, plenty of time to build on a pretty impressive opening win before high-profile matches against Gonzaga and Ohio State.

Banchero said this is just the beginning.

“We’re a great team. We’re going to play together. We’re going to play hard all 40 minutes. And, yeah, I mean, we’re going to play like Duke.”

Krzyzewski took a more pragmatic approach.

“So we’re proud of our win and we’re 1-0 now. So let’s see what we can do”

• Coach K leaves Madison Square Garden a winner behind Trevor Keels’ big night
• No. 9 Duke kicks off Mike Krzyzewski’s final season with impressive win over No. 11 Kentucky
• Coach K wins Garden finale as Duke tops Kentucky 79-71
• Duke Opens Coach K’s Final Season With Impressive Champions Classic Win Over Kentucky
• Coach K wins Garden finale as Duke tops Kentucky 79-71
• Duke vs. Kentucky score, takeaways: Freshmen Paolo Banchero, Trevor Keels push Blue Devils past Wildcats
• UK Basketball Twitter reactions to Champions Classic loss to Duke
• Duke men’s basketball kicks off campaign with win against Kentucky
• Five observations from Duke men’s basketball’s first half against Kentucky
• Three things we learned about Duke in its win over Kentucky at Madison Square Garden
• Coach K Diaries: Spotlight falls on Mike Krzyzewski early at Madison Square Garden
• Even in defeat, Kentucky joins Duke in providing basketball drama in season opener
• Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 79-71 loss to Duke
• Keels, Banchero Lead No. 9 Duke Past No. 10 Kentucky