Nothing that the Duke basketball team showed on Friday night proved that they would be ready to go to Arkansas on Wednesday night for one of the biggest games of the season.
Was it a Thanksgiving hangover? Not taking Southern Indiana seriously? Or Both?
Nevertheless, the Blue Devils looked lost for a majority of its game in Durham against the Eagles.
Southern Indiana walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium and proved it was not scared of mighty Duke and its defense did itself no favors by leaving AJ Smith unguarded for the entire half as the sophomore went for 11 points and nine rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
Jon Scheyer’s words must have rang true at halftime, as Duke emerged from the break looking like a different squad, outscoring the Eagles by 22 points in the second half to win 80-62. At the half, Southern Indiana led by four, 35-31.
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After the half, Jeremy Roach and Kyle Filipowski combined for a game-winning 31 points, while Smith failed to score any points.
After scoring just two points in the first half, Roach went on to score sixteen points on five of eight shots in the second half, while Filipowski overcame a poor two-of-nine shooting start to score fifteen points on six of seven shots.
In the second half, Duke outscored Southern Indiana, 49–27.
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Even though Duke had the advantage as the final buzzer went off, the lead was never truly in control until the very end.
In actuality, it took until 10.9 seconds left for Jeremy Roach to make a traditional 3-point shot for Duke to take their biggest lead of the game, 18 points.
The shooting statistics showed a stark contrast from the first half: Duke only made 3-7.5 percent of its shots and only made one of its eight attempts from beyond the arc, while Southern Indiana shot 43.8 percent from the field and 50.0% from beyond the arc.
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In the second half, the Blue Devils made 60.7% of their shots, and during their comeback, they made 40.0% of their shots from distance.
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