Duke Basketball: Blue Devils Ride a Plumlee To a Win

WHAT JUST HAPPENED:
The Duke Blue Devils finally got tested and they passed. After jumping out to a 14-point lead early, Marquette slowly battled back, chipping away at Duke’s lead. They finally caught the Blue Devils at 53 with roughly 11 minutes to play. Yet, Duke held their composure, re-gained the momentum and escaped with a five-point win.

THE TURNING POINT WAS…
…at the 10:20 mark in the second half, Mason Plumlee grabbed an offensive rebound off a Kyrie Irving miss. That single rebound was the deciding factor. Here me out.

At that point, all the Golden Eagles needed was the lead. They had been battling back the entire game and when they finally tied the game up, the crowd suddenly got excited. Yet, after exchanging two baskets each, Marquette just needed to get that lead. If they did, you just knew the crowd would suddenly be rocking in their favor.

When Irving missed that open three, Marquette had their chance, but Mason Plumlee stuck his giant paw out, grabbed it and got it out to Nolan Smith. Three-point shot…nothing but net.

Just like that, the air went out of the building. Seconds later, Dawkins stole the ball and laid it in. The back-to-back baskets without Marquette scoring was the first time that had happen since the 11-minute mark in the first half.

WHO DESERVES MAD PROPS
This one was easy. Mason Plumlee had a career night, scoring 25, grabbing 12 boards and swatting away five balls on the defensive end. He hit a Double-Dribble like 12 of 16 shots from the floor. The simple fact was, the Golden Eagles could not handle his length and dare I say, athleticism.

While Plumlee got off to a hot start, in the end, he just dominated. He scored 12 of Duke’s last 18 points. He simply looked unstoppable. The irony is, there still is a lot of room for improvement. He only hit 1-4 from the free throw line tonight. He’s only 5-13 for the season. That’s terrible.

More importantly, he’s still learning how to use his hands down low. Watch him. He still tends to fumble the ball around. Tonight it didn’t matter. Once he had control, there was little Marquette could do.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT…
…Nolan Smith. He’s become Mr. Whatever-You-Need. If Duke needs scoring, he can do that. Need him to run the point? No problem. Tonight, he scored 18, but just two days after dishing out nine assists, he grabbed nine rebounds this time around. Also, don’t forget it was his three that broke up that 57-57 tie.

LOSERS NEED LOVE TO:
Marquette senior forward, Jimmy Butler scored 22, almost all of it in the paint, while being guarded by Kyle Singler. I also want to give some minor props to Davante Gardner. Marquette’s big man played with a bum shoulder, yet scored nine points (grabbing four offensive rebounds) in only 15 minutes. One has to believe this team is a lot better if he’s 100-percent.

GOD I LOVE STATS: Did you know that Duke is currently riding a 20-game winning streak? Watch out UConn women! The last time the Blue Devils tasted defeat was March 3, 2009 against Maryland in College Park.

Continue reading: Blue Devils Ride a Plumlee to a Win