Duke and Michigan met at the summit Saturday evening and while the game was not always pretty, the efforts on both sides were stunning as Duke pulled out a 68-63 win.
This was an amazing game from beginning to end, with both teams giving it everything they had.
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The first half was just about dead even. Michigan got a great 20 minutes out of Yaxel Lendeborg, who finished with 16 points on 6-9/2-4. But Aday Mara picked up three fouls in the first half, and that clearly hurt Michigan.
The Blue Devils shot 12-26/4-12 and were obviously not at peak efficiency, but like Michigan, played extremely hard. Caleb Foster and Isaiah Evans both picked up two first-half fouls and their minutes were limited. However, there is minimal drop-off, if any, when Cayden Boozer comes in for Foster, and Nik Khamenia played really well, too.
Duke made several high-IQ plays, including an in-traffic steal in the lane by Khamenia and an unbelievable play by Pat Ngongba, who knocked the ball away from 6-2 LJ Cason on the perimeter, which resulted in a Michigan turnover. Cason had 7 off the bench for Michigan while Morez Johnson had 6 first-half points.
Duke’s first-half scoring was much more balanced. Cameron Boozer had 9 and everyone else at least three points except for Maliq Brown, who had 2, and Cayden Boozer, who did not score but ran the team well.
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Near the end of the half, Cadeau, who to that point had shot 0-3, all three-point attempts, went to the bench with an elbow issue.
In general, Duke played well, taking a 35-33 lead to the locker room, despite the Wolverines shooting 52% overall to Duke’s 46%. However, Duke shot 7-10 from the line to Michigan’s 2-6.
The second half was just as riveting.
Duke never trailed after halftime and that was with some adversity too. Cameron Boozer picked up his third foul with 15:01 to go and then got his fourth with 8:42 and went to the bench for several minutes. Duke was up 53-46 when he sat.
Michigan cut the lead to 57-53 when Boozer re-entered the game with 4:47 to play.
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With 3:49 to play, Michigan cut the lead to 57-56 on a Yaxel Lendeborg three-point shot.
From there on out, offensively anyway, it was mostly the Cameron and Isaiah show as Boozer and Evans dominated down the stretch.
Evans hit an alley-oop to put Duke back up 59-56. Boozer hit a pair of free throws to push Duke back up 61-56 and after an Elliot Cadeau three, he hit a shot in the lane to put the Blue Devils up 66-61.
Cadeau hit a pair of free throws, then Evans went back to the line and hit two more to put Duke up 67-63 and after Nimari Burnett missed Michigan’s final three-point attempt, Evans got a breakaway dunk at the buzzer to give Duke the victory, 70-63 – alas ruled after the horn, so a 68-63 final.
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Duke’s offense was mature and mostly smart, although there were a few turnovers that probably made Jon Scheyer flinch.
However, in the end it was more about defense.
Michigan attempted 24 threes and made just six of those. The Wolverines shot just 40% overall and had 7 turnovers, but still struggled to be effective on offense. Duke dominated on the boards too with 13 offensive rebounds to Michigan’s 8 and 41-28 overall.
A surprise star here was Nik Khamenia, who finished with 9 rebounds in 24 minutes. He showed a lot of toughness overall, but especially on the boards.
This may be the best win of the Scheyer era. Since #2 Houston also lost, Duke has a chance of being #1 Monday morning. We don’t pay a lot of attention to polls since Duke is almost always rated, but being #1 is kind of cool, even if it’s not that important.
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After this, the Blue Devils travel to Notre Dame on Tuesday before returning to Cameron on Saturday to face #14 Virginia.
Notes – As Jay Bilas noted, Pat Ngongba’s offensive rebound near the end was a huge key to the win…Duke limited Elliot Cadeau to 1-8 from the floor…Lendeborg started 6-7 but finished 7-15…Nimari Burnett was shut out completely…Trey McKinney, who we thought might have a big game, shot 1-6…as it turned out, Duke’s front line played much better than Michigan’s vaunted frontcourt…Boozer flirted with a triple-double with 18 points, 10 boards and 7 assists…Evans shot poorly but was clutch when it counted…
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