Duke basketball rolled to a 67-49 victory over Boston College on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The No. 4 Blue Devils (21-1, 10-0) jumped out to an 13-0 lead and held the Eagles without a field goal for the first five minutes, taking a 42-27 lead into the break. Boston College held Duke to a season-low 25 points on 31.8% shooting in the second half, but the Blue Devils still managed to outscore the Eagles 25-22 to claim their 10th conference victory.
Cameron Boozer finished the night with 19 points on 9-of-17 shooting with 12 rebounds for another double-double. Isaiah Evans added 12 points to round out Duke’s double-figure scorers.
Here’s some of what head coach Jon Scheyer had to say after the win over the Eagles:
Opening statement
“Great to get our 10th conference win, all these are precious. Credit Boston College with their defense, I thought they were very disruptive and stood us up. We have to be better at handling that in the second half. Loved our defense and our ability to get off to quick start was great. Proud, like I said, to get this win.”
On second half
“I got to watch the film. It doesn’t feel good, obviously, scoring 25 points. … It’s not fun scoring 25 points in a half, but if you’re gonna score 25, at least hold them to less. That’s the one thing I would say, so that’s good. I thought we were just slow. We weren’t sharp and that’s on me.
“I think for our guys, each game presents different challenges and I thought in the second half, you know, Boston College has a top five defense in the league and I thought their physicality stood us up and … we weren’t as sharp as we normally are but not looking ahead.”
Duke’s looks in the second half from 3
“I think the fact that we’ve established the paint in a bigger way the last month or so, it’s going to lead to great 3-point shots for us and so I want us to shoot those open ones and I can’t tell you all of the seven, it felt like a disjointed half in a lot of ways. I don’t know if there was a great rhythm to it but I would say most of the 3s I thought were pretty good and you know I trust our guys to make those shots. We have to continue to shoot them while also understanding establishing the paint is going to be a big strength for us.”
On Duke’s defense
“I think the effort’s there. I there’s great effort. You know, I love the first sequence, how we started the game. I thought there was great purpose, great intensity. One of the best plays to me, Caleb was in the gap, Isaiah dove for a loose ball, we got it and then Dame ended up getting a dunk on the other end. If you watch that possession, I thought it was the ultimate five guys moving on a string together and that’s something we’ve really worked hard on. So our guys are picking it up, they’re moving better, they understand game plans really well, but I think the main thing is just the focus and the effort has been there. I’m really proud of that.”
Anna Snyder covers Duke for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at asnyder@usatodayco.com or follow her @annaesnydr on X, formerly known as Twitter.
