Tag Archives: Duke-Georgia Southern

#5 Duke crushes Georgia Southern 97-54

[private]The Duke Men's Basketball team (2-0) trounced Georgia Southern (1-1) 97-54 to advance to the semifinals of the Coaches versus Cancer 2K Classic.  The Blue Devils used a suffocating defense which held the Eagles to 28.1% shooting from the field.  Duke held the visitors to just two field goals in nine plus minutes of the first half which enabled them to go on a tear.

Kyle Singler once again led the Dukies with 19 points and 8 rebounds in just 22 minutes.  No Blue Devil played more minutes as Coach Krzyzewski went deep into his bench.  Nolan Smith, Greg Paulus and Gerald Henderson all scored in double digits.

Jon Scheyer led the team in assists with 7 and freshman Elliot Williams got an amazing 11 rebounds in as many minutes.  In short, Duke bounced back with a much better effort than the previous evening, save their free throw shooting which was less than 50% - 24 of 49.

The Duke defense also turned 17 turnovers into 24 points.  Like I said in yesterday's game recap, I expected this game to make many forget the opener which was ugly on the eyes.

Coach Krzyzewski used several combinations and Brian Zoubek started for the first time this season.  Duke got contributions from several players, including David McClure who scored 4 points and grabbed 5 boards.

Duke will play the winner of the UMass - Southern Illinois game on November 20th with the time to be determined.  Duke stretched its non conference winning streak in Cameron Indoor Stadium to 61 straight games.  Coach K now has 805 career wins.  Duke will take on Rhode Island in Cameron on Sunday at 4:30 pm.  This will be the third straight game televised by ESPNU in the young season.  Duke is now 2-0 all time versus the Eagles.

Official Box Score Link

BDN Player of the Game - Kyle Singler[/private]

Duke vs Georgia Southern Preview and Predictions

[private]The Blue Devils take on Georgia Southern at 9:00 in Cameron Indoor Stadium to see who advances to New York in the 2K Sports Classic semi finals.  Duke looked a bit sluggish in last evenings 80-49 victory over Presbyterian and they face a Georgia Southern squad that defeated Houston 65-63.

One of the key players for the Eagles will be Sandy Perry (6-7), a junior front court player who scored 12

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Copyright BDN

points to go with 4 rebounds.  But the main man is Trumaine Pearson (6-8) who is an experienced senior.  Pearson scored 19 points and grabbed 11 boards, anchoring the post for Georgia Southern.

Willie Powers (6-0 sophomore) runs the show with Antoine Johnson (6-0 Junior).  Powers had 14 points and four rebounds in the opener, while Johnson struggled from the field, but led his team in assists.    Julian Allen is a (6-4 Senior) swing-man which plays a key role as well.

Georgia Southern connected on 80% of their free throws and 37% from beyond the three point stripe in their opener.  Georgia Southern is 0-1 against Duke, losing 87-75 in Cameron in 19-86.

What to expect - Duke should play a bit better in tonight's contest, but the Eagles have enough talent to contend throughout the game.  This is clearly the best team the Devils have played to date.  Duke will need to hit the boards and keep Pearson from going off inside. 

My pick is Duke 92 Georgia Southern 64

Bob Green's Pick - Duke 84 Georgia Southern 56[/private]