Duke Rolls in Opener. Next Up: New Mexico State University
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by Wrmjr
As expected, Duke University rolled over North Carolina Central University, 121-56. It's easy to take these games for granted, but considering some of the upsets that have happened already (e.g. Kentucky's home-opener loss to Gardner-Webb), teams with high expectations can’t afford to come out flat. Duke jumped out to a 15-4 lead in the first five minutes and never looked back. Freshman Taylor King led all scorers with 20 points in 19 minutes on 7 of 9 shooting (5 of 7 on three pointers). Duke placed 6 other players in double figures. As a team they shot much better than they had in their two exhibition games. They shot 57% from the field, including a blistering 68% in the second half. They also shot 57% from three-point range (16-28) and were 27-32 (84%) from the free throw line. NCCU was led by Bryan Ayala with 18 points and Charles Furtrell with 17.
Even in an easy win, you can tell that there is room for improvement. Coach Mike Krzyzewski noted “We get broken down a little bit on the dribble” as an area that Duke needs to improve on. Duke also turned the ball over 18 times, so they also need to protect the basketball better. Certainly their next game against New Mexico State University will be a better test for Duke.
The Aggies won 25 games a year ago, but they have been through some off-season turmoil that included losing head coach Reggie Theus. New coach Marvin Menzies was able to retain an excellent recruiting class, however. The team lost their opening game 80-72 to Ohio University. They were led by senior forward Justin Hawkins who had 19 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Jonathan Gibson was the only other Aggie to score in double figures (he had 16). NMSU shot very poorly from the 3 point line in their loss, going only 6 for 28. They will have to do better than that against Duke, and they’ll need to take advantage of Duke’s lack of a big man to get offensive rebounds and score inside.
This is the first ever meeting between these two teams. Duke is expected to win, but they can’t take the Aggies lightly.
