Farm Fed: Duke Crushes Stanford On The Road

You know those slow starts we’ve seen from Duke this season? Didn’t happen at Stanford as Duke started hot and won, 80-50.

Duke’s size and talent presented huge problems for the Cardinal, especially in the first half. Dame Sarr threw a blanket over precocious freshman Ebuka Okorie, limiting him to 7 points before the break. He didn’t get his basket until the 6:57 mark.

Cameron Boozer personally staked Duke to a 6-0 lead and finished the first half just shy of a double-double with 20 points and 9 rebounds, while shooting 9-12/1-2.

That was a huge part of Duke’s early success. Another part of it was the overall defense. At one point, Stanford had 9 turnovers and 10 points and those things were very much related.

Stanford got a little better with ball, finishing the half with 12. They also warmed up a bit shooting wise: at 11:53 in, Stanford was shooting a miserable 11%. Okorie, Cameron Grant and Jeremy Dent-Smith all hit a three each which helped, but not that much. Stanford cut the lead to 8, but Duke pushed it back out to 16.

Aside from Boozer and Dame, who had a sweet drive for a dunk by the way, Isaiah Evans hit for 6 and Duke crushed Stanford on the boards, 21-13.

In a nutshell, Duke’s size frustrated Stanford defensively, while Boozer was unstoppable around the basket. Racking up 20 points and 9 boards at the half is just insane. In fact, Boozer outscored Stanford in the first half by himself.

The second half started more or less the same. Duke built a 19 point lead early and back doored Stanford several times on the way to a 44-28 lead at the 16-and-under timeout.

Duke got into a bit of foul trouble with Ngongba and Brown with three each by the middle of the second half.

Didn’t much matter. Jeremy Dent-Smith started hitting in the second half, a bit like he did against UNC, but Duke shot56% overall and 40% from deep for the game to Stanford’s35% overall and 24% from behind the line.

Toss in 18 turnovers by Stanford and a 35-29 advantage on the boards advantage for Duke on the boards that narrowed as the game went on and the Cardinal had a tough hill to climb. In the end, they just couldn’t do it.

Notes – Boozer finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds but Sarr’s defense was just as big a factor…Okorie has been getting 30 point games on the regular and here hefinished with 9…he didn’t score a second half basket until the 6:35 mark on a steal…that was his only second-half bucket…Ngongba was a major factor but not flashy….he was really physical down low and made some gorgeous passes…Maliq Brown’s D was big too…Stanford starters Benny Gealer was held scoreless deep into the second half while Ryan Agarwal had just 3 and Donavin Young was shut out…free throws continue to be an issue for the Blue Devils…

• Boozer’s 30-point double-double leads No. 6 Duke men’s basketball past Stanford 80-50
• 5 observations from No. 6 Duke men’s basketball’s first half against Stanford