Duke heats up from 3-point range, downs Virginia
DURHAM – Duke wants to play smashmouth basketball and go inside-out.
But if they’re going to make 3s, that works too.
Duke rolled through Virginia 77-51 on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Blue Devils were 8-for-13 from 3-point range in the first half and finished the game 12-for-24.
Duke clinched at least a share of the ACC regular season championship and the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament. The No. 1 Blue Devils (27-2, 15-1 ACC) can clinch the outright title with a win at N.C. State on Monday night.
Isaiah Evans led Duke with 19 points and made five 3-pointers. Cameron Boozer had 18 points despite his first field goal coming 1½ minutes into the second half. He was 11-for-12 at the free-throw line in the first half.
The first sequence of this game in which Virginia (25-4, 13-3) scored, got a defensive stop, and scored again happened with about 11 minutes left in the game.
That was a 4-0 run and cut Duke’s lead to 57-41. A few minutes later, Duke went on an 11-0 run to make it 70-43.
Evans was outscoring Virginia for the first 14 minutes of this game.
Duke’s sophomore guard hit three of his first four 3s. That took him to 8-for-10 in his career against the Cavaliers, having gone 5-for-6 in Charlottesville last season.
Virginia’s offense was slow to get going. The Cavaliers went 7½ minutes between field goals in the first half. Their only points in that stretch were two free throws by Jacari White when he was fouled shooting a 3.
Duke got a quick burst of offense from Darren Harris — fresh off his energy-fueled 16-point game at Notre Dame on Tuesday night after a DNP against Michigan. The sophomore drilled a couple of 3s in a 65-second span, taking Duke’s lead into double digits at 25-12.
When Dame Sarr hit a 3-pointer to make it 28-12, Virginia coach Ryan Odom needed a timeout.
Both teams got rolling offensively for the last five minutes of the first half. Duke took a 41-26 lead into halftime.
