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Roach Scores 23 As Duke Blows Out Oral Roberts In NCAA Tournament Opener

Jordan Davis

ORLANDO, FL — The fifth-seeded Duke Blue Devils defeated twelfth-seeded Oral Roberts 74-51 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night (March 16) in the Amway Center.

Junior guard Jeremy Roach scored 23 points and dished off three assists to help Duke advance into the Round of 32. The Blue Devils have now won 10 consecutive games and 13 of their last 15 — a span in which they won the ACC Championship over Virginia.

Oral Roberts came into the NCAA Tournament as one of the three highest-scoring teams of all 64 qualifiers. The Golden Eagles could not buy a bucket early on as the Blue Devils jumped out on an 11-0 run out of the gate. Duke’s size and versatility on the defensive end held Oral Roberts to shoot 1-13 from the field to start.

A huge factor defensively tonight for Duke’s defense as for the majority of the season to this point was Dereck Lively II. In the first six minutes of play, Lively recorded three blocks and six rebounds, being a menace in the paint and anchoring the Blue Devils’ defense altogether.

Duke allowed just 63.8 points per game during the regular season which equates to 31st nationally. This serves as the team’s best regular season scoring defense since 2009-10 where they allowed just 61.8 points per game. A huge reason for that is due to the rim protection from Lively — who is one of just three Freshmen over the last 15 seasons to have a block rate of 13%+ on a six-seeded or better team.

Roach and freshman forward Dariq Whitehead would catch fire toward the end of the first half where the Blue Devils led by as much as 21. Ultimately, Duke went into the halftime break up 17 on the Golden Eagles.

Whitehead would finish with 13 points and four rebounds while shooting a perfect 3-3 from beyond the arc. The Montverde Academy alum came into the NCAA Tournament shooting 48% from three over Duke’s nine-game win streak. He’s shot 41% from downtown on the season which ranks him 8th all-time among Duke freshmen.

Oral Roberts would go on a 17-5 run minutes after a strong Duke showing out of the halftime break, but still held a 15-point lead. Golden Eagles season leading scorer Max Abmas created open looks for his shooters on the team after being blitzed on double teams all night. Tyrese Proctor and Mark Mitchell played tight-knit defense on Abmas all night and held him to finish with just 12 points on 4-15 shooting.

Duke would extend their lead to as much as 25 with four minutes remaining after Mark Mitchell found Dariq Whitehead in the corner for a three-pointer — which proved to be the dagger.

Duke never trailed in this matchup as they improved to 27-8 on the year. The Blue Devils look at a chance to advance to the Sweet 16 with a win on Saturday. They’ll take on the winner between fourth-seeded Tennessee and thirteen-seeded Louisiana.