The Duke Blue Devils had a few good runs in the second half to pull away from the Lafayette Leopards 88-55 Friday night to start their season 5-0. The Loss dropped the Leopards to 0-4.
Duke went on 13-0 run to jump out to a 16 point lead, 21-5. Lafayette 6’7″ sophomore, Kyle Jenkins, went on a run of his own. Jenkins hit a two point shot to make it 23-12, then he hit a shot from beyond the arc to make it 23-15, another three to make the score 30-20, a layup for 30-24 and another layup making the score 32-27. He ended the first half with 15 points, hitting 6 of 9 from the field and 3 of 5 from downtown.
Longtime Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon, who is in his 27th year at the school said Jenkins “is probably our best player, the most athletic, somebody who can play with those athletes on Duke. He shoots the ball extremely well and he really pulled us through during that tough stretch.”
Other than not being able to defend Jenkins, there was a lot to like about the first half. Duke forced Lafayette into committing 13 turnovers, while they played a relatively clean first half, committing only 4 and held everyone other than Jenkins to 5 of 19 from the floor.
Dukes’ head coach Mike Krzyzewski said the problem was Duke’s transition defense.
“Jenkins got three open 3s and it all had to do with ‘man, I should have hit that shot.’ No, you should run down the court and play defense. Our offense effected our defense. What we were doing in that time period, we were coming down in the middle of the court and their team was fanning out and we were making close-outs instead of coming along the outside lanes where they were running and they took advantage of it.”
The second half started much like the first. Lafayette made a field goal, Duke had a turnover and Lafayette’s big man Neal Quinn went to the line for a chance to trim the lead down to four. This is when Duke started to take over.
“We had a chance to cut it to four with a couple of foul shots,” O’Hanlon said. “But we didn’t get it done and they kinda went on a huge spurt there and we kind of lost our poise.”
Duke went on a huge run to break the game open. Moore was a key factor in that surge. Paolo Banchero hit a shot from downtown and center Mark Williams scored in the paint after those missed foul shots.
But Lafayette also scored, bringing them to within 9, 40-31, when Williams grabbed a defensive board and connected with Moore on an outlet pass. Moore beat the defense down the court, scored, drew a foul and made the free throw.
Then Moore went on a personal run, scoring eight point in about one minute forty. Moore also did his job on the defensive end of the court, shutting down Jenkins completely in the second half until he hit a 3-pointer that made the score 76-50, with just under six minutes to go in regulation. Duke went on to win 88-55.
Wendell Moore Jr. scored 23 points along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists for Duke. A.J. Griffin scored 18 points off the bench. Mark Williams had a double-double with 14 points and 15 boards. Paola Banchero chipped in with 11 points and Trevor Keels had 10.
Kyle Jenkins, who had four of his team’s seven 3-pointers, scored a team high 18 points for Lafayette. Tyrone Perry scored 9 points, had 4 rebounds and 1 assist. C.J. Fulton added 7 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist.
Lafayette plays at Rutgers facing the Scarlet Knights on Monday night. Duke completes a five-game home stand Monday night against The Citadel.
