Blue Devils bludgeon UVA. 3 takeaways from No. 10 Duke’s lopsided win over Cavaliers

Playing its best first half of the season, No. 10 Duke delivered shot after shot to give Virginia no hope of winning Saturday night.

The Blue Devils needed fewer than 10 minutes to build a 10-point lead and fewer than 15 to take a 20-point lead. The second half was academic as Duke rolled to a resounding 73-48 ACC basketball win.

Kyle Filipowski, whose 15 first-half points nearly matched Virginia’s scoring output (18), paced the Blue Devils with 21 points. Tyrese Proctor added 15 points with five assists while sophomore forward Mark Mitchell scored 10.

“I’m just proud of our guys,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “They just came out ready to play with an aggressive and sharing mindset. I think our team is growing. Flip was terrific. When he plays like that it changes our whole team.”

The win keeps Duke (23-6, 14-4 ACC) one game behind ACC-leading North Carolina (23-6, 15-3 ACC) in the league standings with two regular-season games to play. The Blue Devils are already assured of a top-two league finish and a double-bye into the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament in Washington, D.C.

Virginia (21-9, 12-7) shot an unsightly 23.6% in the first half, making just 6 of 26 shots. The Cavaliers had more turnovers (seven) than made shots over the game’s first 20 minutes.

That allowed Duke to lead by as many as 25 points before halftime.

For Filipowski, the preseason ACC player of the year who is Duke’s leading scorer and rebounder, the performance marked his his biggest scoring game since scoring 21 in Duke’s 77-69 win over Wake on Feb. 12.

It was also a stark contrast to the only scoreless game of his college career, which came a year ago when Duke lost 69-62 in overtime to Virginia.

“We remember what happened last year,” Filipowski said. “We’ve got to keep that in our mind and we’re going to make that a statement this year for sure.”

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Blue Devils thrive in the paint

Duke started the game determined to get the ball inside for high-percentage shots, and was immediately in violating Virginia’s vaunted pack-line defense. The Blue Devils scored 28 of their first-half points in the lane to build a 40-18 halftime edge.

“When you are playing a team with the firepower of Duke,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said, “you can get separated quick.”

With Filipowski and Mitchell finding room to maneuver inside and even Duke’s guards finding driving lanes, 20 of Duke’s first 29 points were in the paint over the game’s first 12 minutes.

That’s a big reason why Duke hit 14 of its first 18 shots and hit 58.6% of its first-half shots overall.

“I thought we did such a good job of flowing into offense and driving downhill making the right reads,” Scheyer said, “and then good things happen. From that, we just kept our foot on the gas.”

Duke finished with 44 points in the paint, exceeding its season average of 35.6 per game. Impressively, the Blue Devils scored more points in the paint against Virginia than any other team this season. The Cavaliers have only allowed ACC teams to score 24.7 points in the paint per game.

Locked in defensively

Nobody will ever mistake Virginia for a competent offensive team. The Cavaliers failed to reach the 50-point mark in three of the previous four games prior to Saturday. Their shooting percentage on 2-point shots this season was 47.2%, 295th among the nation’s Division I teams.

That said, Duke took advantage defensively to challenge Virginia with a switching man-to-man defense that easily stymied the Cavaliers. Virginia made just 4 of its first 21 shots as Duke built a 38-13 lead. At that point, Virginia had scored just .542 of a point per possession.

Virginia finished the game shooting 30.9% overall, making 5 of 17 3-pointers (29.4%). The Cavaliers scored 0.8 points per possession for the game. That’s compared to Duke’s 1.2 points per possession.

Going big

Scheyer indicated earlier in the week, freshman guard Caleb Foster’s absence due to a right foot injury will have the Blue Devils going with bigger quintets more than usual for the foreseeable future.

Yes, Duke started three guards in Proctor, Jeremy Roach and Jared McCain. But the first substitute off the bench was 6-9 freshman TJ Power, the first time he’s had that honor this season. Prior to playing 14 minutes in Duke’s 84-59 win over Louisville on Wednesday night, Power did not play in six of Duke’s previous 10 ACC games.

But that was before Foster was injured during Duke’s 83-79 loss at Wake Forest on Feb. 24.

The Blue Devils frequently went with two-guard lineups against Virginia, rotating Filipowski, Mitchell, Power, Ryan Young and Sean Stewart at three forward positions.

The bigger lineup allowed Duke to dominate the rebounding stats again. After winning the rebounding battle by 19 over Louisville, Duke outrebounded Virginia, 42-29.

This story was originally published March 2, 2024, 8:06 PM.