The Duke Blue Devils moved to 10-1 going into the Christmas break with an 86-57 win over Wofford. It was the fourth consecutive win for the 3rd ranked Blue Devils who were coming off their school's exam break.
The Blue Devils played the game without the services of starting point guard Tre Jones who has sustained a minor foot injury. “It's out of an abundance of caution that we’re holding Tre out tonight,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “We are confident this is minor and we expect him back very soon.”
Duke jumped out to a 39-26 lead at the half where nine players played and scored. The team continued their effort into the second half where they pushed the ball inside to get two Wofford started into early foul trouble.
The Blue Devils got a huge lift off the bench from Joey Baker who was blistering the nets from the three-point stripe. At the five minute mark in the second half, the Cameron crowd was cheering his name.
Baker ended the contest with a team and career-high 22 points. He received high praise from Krzyzewski who said he had worked hard since September. He added that the whole team was pulling for Baker in the game who actually gave his coach a high five after one score near the Duke bench.
Vernon Carey added another double-double 20 points and 10 rebounds, his eighth of the season. Krzyzewski obviously wanted to push the ball inside and that benefited the freshmen big man.
It was clear in the post-game press conference that Krzyzewski liked his team's effort and for good reason. The Blue Devils have practiced very little during the exam break but played sharp, especially on the defensive end.
Duke got a solid effort from its entire team going nine deep while substituting often. Jordan Goldwire was solid in his start at point guard not committing a turnover while adding 8 points and 5 assists.
Matthew Hurt has a solid first half scoring 12 points and all of his teammates contributed right down to Justin Robinson who came in late and made some plays.
All in all, it was just as solid an effort as one could ask of the Blue Devils heading into the Christmas break.