Mike Krzyzewski subbed out his seniors, like Seth Curry, late in the game, but, other than that, the bench has shortened considerably. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY
DURHAM—Game No. 30 is in the books, just like the home careers of Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly and Seth Curry. Read all about it in the game story from Duke's 85-57 win over Virginia Tech.
••• 9 a.m. update With 3:36 left in the game, Seth Currytook a knee to his injured right shin, and he went down in obvious pain. Curry was subbed out and continued to rub his shin on the bench.
"Somebody kneed right into it. That’s not good," he said.
"It just hurt bad for a few minutes. I’ll be alright."
Curry, who injured his shin in mid-September, has only missed one game this year.
••• After not playing at all against Miami, Amile Jefferson entered the game for the first time midway through the first half. Jefferson started six games in Ryan Kelly’s absence, but only two reserves (Josh Hairston and Tyler Thornton) played against the Hurricanes. Jefferson played four minutes Tuesday, finishing with two points and one rebound. Eight Blue Devils (the starters plus Thornton, Hairston and Jefferson) played while the game was still competitive.
••• Rasheed Sulaimon played a season-low 17 minutes and just two in the second half. After struggling on defense and going 0-for-2 from the floor in the first half, Thronton took his spot to start the second. Sulaimon made a brief appearance with 14:42 left in the game but was removed less than a minute later after he fouled Erick Green on a jump shot (he made it). Sulaimon did return for a minute with 3:36 left on the clock, and he hit a jumper and a 3-pointer to give him five total points.
“He’s a freshman,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “It’s the 30th game and there’s a lot of pressure on him. He just didn’t have any spunk tonight.”
••• A Virginia Tech 2-3 zone was effective for about four minutes in the first half. The Hokies were forced to switch back to man-to-man after 3s from Kelly and Seth Curry. The Blue Devils haven’t seen much zone defense this year.
"We had to go to a zone because of foul trouble and to give ourselves a little of a breather inside," Virginia Tech coach James Johnson said. "I thought they have a couple clean looks in the zone that we probably could've tightened up a little bit, but other than that I thought we did a decent job defending them. They just have good guards who can knock them down."
•••With 1:11 left in the game, Krzyzewski called a substitution timeout to insert reserve forward Todd Zafirovski into the game. Zafirovski was not introduced with the rest of the seniors, as he has one more year of eligibility remaining and is expected to return to the team.
For all the latest Duke news, like Duke NOW on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.
