Staff photo by Chuck Liddy
DURHAM — Duke brings in so many highly touted freshmen year after year, it’s easy to forget the value of a good upperclassman.
Not so on Tuesday night.
Duke junior center Brian Zoubek started in place of freshman Miles Plumlee, and junior Lance Thomas and seniors David McClure and Greg Paulus played a good supporting cast during a Duke victory that passed for the Kyle Singler Show in the first half.
Singler scored 19 points, 18 in the first half, as eighth-ranked Duke beat Georgia Southern 97-54 in the second round of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke (2-0) earned a trip to New York where it will play the team that advances out of the Southern Illinois bracket out in Carbondale, Ill. Southern Illinois was facing California (Pa.) and Massachusetts was playing Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday night with their second-round games on Wednesday.
The Devils played hard on Monday night but you could see how nervous Plumlee and fellow freshmen Elliott Wiliams were in the opener.
The Devils matched the effort on Tuesday night but looked a lot more relaxed with the starting five, former starter Paulus and veterans like Thomas and McClure coming off the bench.
It came together in a frenzied final 2:27 of the first half. Georgia Southern (1-1) trailed by only 15 points after Anthony Marshall hit a 3 with 2:41 left in the first half. It wasn’t so bad until Duke went off on a tear that started innocently with Singler hitting a short jumper from the baseline.
Smoke started rising when junior Jon Scheyer hit a 3, then the flames began to flicker when sophomore Nolan Smith stole a Georgia Southern pass and scored on the other end.
Smith hit a 3 a few seconds later before Singler took a turnover and dunked on the other end to cap off a 13-0 run.
Thomas, 15 pounds stronger and just as determined as when he arrived at Duke two years ago, got the crowd going to open the second half. Scheyer fed him for a dunk with 15:46 left in the game.
Scheyer stole a Georgia Southern pass on the next inbounds play and missed his layup but Thomas was there to follow, again with a dunk, to give Duke a 66-31 lead.
Zoubek started the night after Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski openly wondered if officials were being open-minded about the 7-foot-1, 280-pound Zoubek and his size relative to smaller players. Zoubek had fouled out with three of his five fouls coming on the offensive end against Presbyterian.
Zoubek was able to get his minutes on Tuesday and that was progress for a guy that had offseason foot surgery.
Plumlee and Williams eventually got into the game in the second half. Plumlee looked a lot more relaxed and Williams chased down 11 rebounds.
Paulus added 11 points, draining two 3s. McClure was his usual do-a-little-of-everything self while also scoring twice with dunks in the first half.
Singler, against overmatched teams who can’t stop him, is getting fouled and living at the foul line. He made all eight of his chances on Monday and made 8 of 10 in the first half on Tuesday.
Duke shot 25-for-49 from the line. That was the one black mark against a Duke team that also forced 17 turnovers.
