Duke gets big shot from Isaiah Evans, beats Florida
DURHAM – Pushed again, Duke reached back for its finishing touch in another non-conference spotlight game.
The Blue Devils went to the shooter who was 0-for-7 from 3-point range.
Isaiah Evans drained it.
Duke’s sophomore drained the go-ahead 3 with 19 seconds left, Caleb Foster came up with a steal on the ensuing possession, and the Blue Devils beat Florida 67-66 on Tuesday night in an ACC-SEC Challenge thriller at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Evans scored 13 points and obviously none bigger than the last three. Duke (9-0) led for the entire second half until Boogie Fland’s 3-pointer with 34 seconds left.
Evans took a pass from Cameron Boozer and drilled the game-winner.
On the ensuing possession, Caleb Foster came up with a steal. He was fouled but missed a free throw, so Florida (5-3) was in-bounding from its baseline with 1.5 seconds left. Maliq Brown deflected the pass and Florida didn’t get a shot off.
Florida got back into the game with a 14-2 run early in the second half. That made it a 40-38 Duke lead, and the Gators trimmed the Blue Devils’ lead to one a few minutes later.
Duke took a 36-24 lead to halftime thanks to a dominant last eight minutes.
It was a 19-19 game on Thomas Haugh’s vicious tomahawk dunk. The Blue Devils answered that with a 9-0 run, including Patrick Ngongba II’s second 3-pointer of the half.
Haugh got a nice bucket to stop that run, and then Duke put up the next eight points. Four of those came on big-boy plays by Boozer.
Boogie Fland made a desperation 3-pointer in the final minute of the first half to cut Duke’s lead down to 12. That made Florida’s three guards — Fland, Xaivian Lee and Urban Klavzar — a combined 2-for-17 in the first half.
Florida had 10 offensive rebounds in the first half. That was a problem for the Blue Devils; it just didn’t show up on the scoreboard. The Gators only had two second-chance points with those 10 rebounds, and they came from Rueben Chinyelu on the first possession of the game.
Duke’s first seven shots were 3-pointers. Three of them went in — from Boozer, Ngongba and Caleb Foster.
