Exhibition Season is Finally Over: Duke Rolls over Barton 105-44
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by Wrmjr
Apparently, Division II Barton College didn’t get the memo, or at least it was delivered late. For the first 9 minutes, Barton didn’t seem to realize that this was an exhibition game for Duke University, and they were meant to play the foil for Duke to exhibit its talent. Barton was having none of that. Duke started the game cold and Barton ran a very methodical, slow-down game. With about ten and a half minutes to go in the first half, Barton led 16-11. Apparently it was at that point that the memo arrived.
Duke turned up the defensive pressure—they ended up causing 36 turnovers—and the baskets started to fall. Barton wilted under the pressure, much to the chagrin of coach Ron Lievense, and Duke cruised to a 105-44 win to close out the exhibition portion of their schedule. Duke’s regular season begins Friday with cross-town neighbor, North Carolina Central University.
Duke was once again led by freshman phenom Kyle Singler. Singler scored 27 points and gathered 10 rebounds (five on the offensive end). He shot 10 for 12 from the field and was 6 for 6 from the line. Also in double figures for the Blue Devils were Jon Scheyer with 11, DeMarcus Nelson with 14, Gerald Henderson with 16 and Nolan Smith with 18. Smith also led the team with 6 assists. No one from Barton scored in double figures.
Clearly, the final 30 minutes of this game were pure domination, and that isn’t very interesting to talk about. The Blue Devils improved on protecting the ball (only 13 turnovers) and on team free throw shooting (27-34). However, their 3 point shooting was an abysmal 6 for 27 (22%). This is particularly worrisome for a team that will often live (or die) by their outside shooting.
With the real schedule right around the corner, the next few articles of the Duke Beat report will do mini-profiles of the teams that Duke has scheduled this year. Since there are fairly few beat reporters covering College Hoops, this will be the only preview some of these teams get. I’ll try to note each time that I’m not ignoring particular schools on purpose—it’s just that I’m focusing on who is on Duke’s schedule. So if you are wondering why I won’t be profiling Memphis (or any number of other great teams), now you know.
