Duke Starts 5 Freshman In Win Over UMES
Duke basketball started five freshman for the first time in the program's history as they went on to beat UMES by a score of 82 - 55. Although at times the game felt sloppy with several turnovers for both teams, Duke still cruised to the win without Jeremy Roach in the starting lineup or on the floor all game as he was recovering from a toe injury. To me the game kind of felt like a coming out party for Dariq Whitehead as he got his first career start and scored a career high 15 points in 25 minutes of play. Jaden Schutt also stepped up in this game scoring 9 points in just under 19 minutes of play. Jon Scheyer gave credit to Jaden Schutt in his opening statement after the game (video below).
As Scheyer stated in the opening statement.. this team has played 12 games in 34 days. That is an average of a game every 2.8 days. In those 34 days Duke has travelled to Indianapolis for the Champions Classic, spent Thanksgiving break playing 3 games in Portland Oregon, as well as played a game in the Jimmy V Classic in New York City. Throw in 7 more games at Cameron Indoor Stadium and you have a very busy 34 days to start the college basketball season.
Duke now has a 9 break from games before travelling to Winston Salem to open up ACC play against Wake Forest on Tuesday December 20th.
Duke is 10 - 2 in its first 12 games of the season. Its only 2 losses are to Kansas and Purdue who are both ranked in the Top 10 of the AP college basketball rankings. This is a team that is built on defense and is still figuring things out. It's only December and Duke has a long ACC schedule ahead of them to continue to gel and get ready for March.
Keep reading below for Notables from Duke Sports Information as well as post game player interviews and pics.
Notables
• Duke started five freshmen for the first time in program history as junior Jeremy Roach (toe injury) missed the game.
• Freshman Dariq Whitehead made his first career start, scoring a career-high 15 points in a career-high 25 minutes.
• UMES became the 10th Duke opponent in 12 games this season to score less than 70 points.
• Duke has held all 12 opponents this season to below their season scoring average – UMES came in averaging 62.1 points.
• Duke out-rebounded UMES, 42-20 – marking the 10th time in 12 games this season with a rebounding advantage and eighth time with a double-digit advantage. The advantage for Duke in offensive rebounds was 14-5.
• Thirteen Duke players saw action in the game – 11 scored and 10 had at least one rebound.