Madison Square Garden —Duke came out the tunnel making buckets and it was contagious throughout the whole game .
Entering this contest, the Blue Devils was 3-0 in the Jimmy V Classic–beating Kentucky twice in (1998 & 2001) and Florida in 2016. Duke has now won six of the seven of its last seven at MSG where it has a 40-18 record all-time at MSG.
Jeremy Roach had a career high with 22 points and No. 15 Duke (9-2) beat Iowa 74-62 Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in front of 17,828 mostly Blue Devils’ fans.
It was Iowa’s first game against the Blue Devils in 21 years, and it was not the type of game that the Hawkeyes wanted to display on ESPN at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Iowa only win against Duke was at the 1994 Rainbow Classic in Hawaii.
Cancer survivor Dick Vitale called the game for ESPN, the Blue Devils won their third straight contest since a 19-point loss to Purdue last month in the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy.
Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery chalked the loss as a bad one with shots but not with shot selection.
“I’ll be honest with you, I thought our offense was pretty good. We got good shots. Yeah, they were physical. Yeah, they work. … But we got it to the front of the rim. We got open 3s. We moved the ball.”
“I don’t remember a really bad 3. If you’re open, shoot it. We’ve got good shooters and didn’t make shots tonight.”
This was the eighth time Duke has held an opponent under 65 points and did it against an opponent that came in averaging 86.4 points per contest.
At halftime Iowa was only down 37-31. Duke’s lead increased to 36-24 after making six straight buckets at one point, but the Hawkeyes settled down on defense and ate away at the lead before the break. A Kyle Filipowski missed free throw (on the front end of a one-and-one) with 7 seconds left in the first half and that was crucial because, Patrick McCaffery snatched the rebound, Ahron Ulis bolted up the floor and hit Filip Rebraca for a layup at the buzzer to cut the lead to six points. That gave Iowa a little boost going into the halftime.
In the second half, Mark Mitchell stuck with Iowa star Kris Murray like glue and held him to 17 points.
“The defense is the base of who we are,” first-year Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer said. “When I found out I was going to be the head coach at Duke, two things are connected to Duke basketball: playing defense and sharing the ball. We’ll continue to emphasize that, but just proud of the effort.
Patrick McCaffery (12 points), Dasonte Bowen (12 points, all in the second half) and Rebraca (10 points) led the Hawkeyes in scoring. Murray (who was averaging 21 points a game) was held to eight points and seven boards, along with three assists.
Iowa’s slow start saw Murray just off a 31-point, 20-rebound performance a week earlier against Georgia Tech air-ball the first 2-pointer he attempted and both 3-pointers he tried. Rebraca missed at least three close bunnies. Payton Sandfort’s shot was way off (2-for-7). The Hawkeyes allowed Duke a lot of open looks and the Blue Devils knocked down 6 of 11 3-point attempts in the first half to Iowa’s 2-for-9. No Hawkeye player scored more than five points in the first half.
Roach converted a three-point play with 14:14 remaining to give Duke a 12-point lead at 51-39. The Blue Devils extended it to 59-43 when Young passed out of a double team close to the baseline to Mitchell, who slammed it home and finished a three-point play with 9:51 left on the clock.
Duke ran it up to 56-41 by the under-12 media timeout, and it was evident that this was going to be a long night for the Hawkeyes.
UP NEXT:
Iowa faces a quick turnaround, hosting No. 20 Iowa State on Thursday and then Wisconsin in the Hawkeyes’ Big Ten opener Sunday.
Duke hosts Maryland-Eastern Shore on Saturday before visiting Wake Forest for its first ACC road game next Tuesday.
