Duke 89, SMU 62 (
recap,
box score,
highlights,
condensed game,
full replay,
presser)
Duke men's basketball trailed for only 29 seconds at SMU on Saturday, Jan. 4, as the Blue Devils (12-2, 4-0 ACC) cruised to an 89-62 victory over the Mustangs (11-3, 2-1 ACC). Freshman Cooper Flagg poured in 24 points and posted his fifth double-double of the season with a team-high 11 rebounds to lead the Blue Devils. The 20-point double-double is Flagg's fourth such game of his freshman campaign.
Kon Knueppel and Tyrese Proctor also scored in double-figures, as each contributed 14 points. Sion James dished a season-high eight assists, one shy of his career high.
As a team, Duke tallied 22 assists on their 33 made field goals. The Blue Devils are averaging 20.3 assists per game across their last three games, and Duke's 3.1 assist-turnover ratio on Saturday afternoon set a new benchmark for the season.
In addition to the ACC Digital Network highlights linked above, here are some from
The CW:
GoDuke offered postgame
quotes, but SMU's On3 affiliate has the
Duke presser from associate head coach Chris Carrawell, along with Tyrese Proctor and Cooper Flagg:
Coach Carrawell:
"I thought we did a good job in the first half. We didn’t settle. Thought we did a really good job of attacking the paint in the first half. We got downhill. At halftime, I think we had 12 assists and one turnover. We didn't turn the ball over, we got quality shots for the most part of the game. And in the second half, we were able to get downhill and it opened up. We made our kicks and guys were ready to shoot the ball. Cooper is able to put pressure on the defense and any time he's in that mode, attacking, it opens up a lot for us."
Cooper Flagg:
"I think for me, my whole mindset this whole year, has just been trying to get better every single day. I think that as we've gotten more comfortable as a team, we've come together more. I think our offense has definitely sharpened up a lot, and that's helped me as well. A lot of guys have stepped up through a lot of different games, so it's just a team effort that having guys like Tyrese [Proctor] and Kon [Knueppel] on the court helps open everything up for me."
Tyrese Proctor:
"The number one emphasis the whole week was to limit their offensive transition. So, focus on [defensive transition] for us and rebound. They're a really good rebounding team. They sort of punched us in the mouth early, in terms of getting balls and offensive rebounds. I feel like, once we adjusted to that, we just played the game in our favor, and we do what we do."
Here are the postgame comments from the
SMU side: head coach Andy Enfield, plus players Matt Cross and Boopie Miller:
Coach Enfield:
"We picked a tough time to play a bad game. We just didn't have it offensively today -- missed a lot of open shots, 14 free throws, and then defensively they went on a couple of runs, so give Duke credit. They played very efficient offense today, and we didn't."
Finally, Duke MBB delivers a
short clip from the locker room that's surprisingly jam-packed: Dallas local Dereck Lively, a water bottle celebration, a phone call from Jon Scheyer, and a few words from a soaked Coach Carrawell.