Allen Dominates Early, Blue Devils Roll 96-80
Grayson Allen scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half as Duke defeated the South Dakota Coyotes 96-80 on Saturday.
Gary Trent Jr opened the scoring for Duke with a tough floater to start the game.
South Dakota would take the lead on a Tyler Hagedorn three, but Grayson Allen came right back six second later with three of his own to regain the advantage for the Blue Devils at 5-3.
Allen started the game hot, scoring 15 points on a 6-of-7 shooting effort and outscoring the entire USD team 15-13 at the under-12 media timeout.
Duke would use a 15-2 run in the first half, part of a 62% shooting half to take the lead in to halftime leading 54-30
Marvin Bagley III three-pointer to begin the second half for Duke.
South Dakota 6-0 run to cut the score to 69-51. Duke answered that with an 8-0 run of their own to extend the lead to 26 with a score of 77-51.
The Coyotes would use a late push to cut their deficit to 16 with the score at 96-78, but would not get any closer than that as Duke would keep their foot on the gas and come away with the 96-80 victory. Duke finished the game shooting 58% (35-60) from the field, including seven three-pointers and 12 dunks.
Marvin Bagley III finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season. Trevon Duval added 14 points and eight assists to the stat sheet as well.
Duke struggled to find their rhythm on defense in the second half, allowing USD to outscore the home team 50-40 in the half in Cameron Indoor.
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski mentioned after the game that he was looking to get his bench players more minutes this game, noting that “things might have looked better if I put Grayson [Allen] and Marvin [Bagley III] back in the game.”
Look for the Duke coaching staff to get more bench players minutes on Tuesday, December 5th as Duke will be right back in action Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night to face St. Francis (PA) at 9 pm.
(Photos by Mel Brown)