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    • Duke Blue Devils rolls over Arizona Wildcats despite an enthusiastic crowd
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    Duke Blue Devils rolls over Arizona Wildcats despite an enthusiastic crowd

    Vaseline Posted on

    Bruce Pascoe
    | Arizona daily star

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    While hosting cross-country rival Duke for the first time in nearly 34 years, the Arizona Wildcats got all the edge help they could have asked for: a rowdy sellout crowd, a white atmosphere and former standout players along the South baseline. .

    They had everything, except insult. Or a rebound. And enough defense to compensate for those shortcomings.

    In a 69-55 loss to Duke on Friday, the Wildcats shot just 39.6% from the field, hit just 6 of 23 3-pointers, got to the free throw line just 11 times – and were outrebounded 43-30.

    In short, Duke was just better, across the board. Freshman phenom Cooper Flagg led Duke with 24 points on 10-for-22 shooting, while Kon Knueppel added 11 points and seven rebounds. The Blue Devils shot just 42.6%, but hit 9 of 24 three-pointers (37.5%) and scored 14 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.

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    The loss dropped 17th-ranked Arizona to 2-2, while 12th-ranked Duke improved to 4-1.

    It also completed an unusual home-and-home series in which each team won on the other’s home court after the Wildcats defeated the Blue Devils 78-73 in Durham, N.C., early last season.

    Combined with their 103–88 loss at Wisconsin on November 15, it marked the first time the Wildcats had lost back-to-back games under coach Tommy Lloyd in more than three seasons, breaking the 11-game losing streak. Arizona is now a combined 90-22 under Lloyd, after a loss previously always followed by at least one win.

    Leading the Arizona Wildcats

    Jaden Bradley led Arizona with 18 points and KJ Lewis added 12, while preseason All-American Caleb Love had eight points and made just 1 of 9 three-pointers.

    Trailing by as many as 13 points early in the second half, the Wildcats rallied in part because Love hit his first 3-pointer with 10:52 left to cut the score to 46-38. Love had hit just one of six shots before that, and none of his first four threes.

    Flagg and Lewis traded 3s around the eight-minute mark, with Duke still holding a 53-46 lead. Two 3-pointers from Knueppel helped the Blue Devils rebuild the lead to a 61-48 lead with 3:56 to go, after which some McKale fans headed for the exit.

    After taking a 34-27 lead at halftime, Duke kept the game going early in the second half. The Blue Devils made it 46-33 while hitting five of 11 shots – including two of three from three-point range – in the first eight minutes of the second half.

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    Bradley briefly hit the ground early in the second half as what appeared to be a cramp quickly returned.

    In the first half, Duke outscored Arizona 20-14, scoring 12 points off nine UA turnovers to take a 34-27 lead at halftime.

    The Blue Devils were roundly booed as they entered the arena for warmups, with fans on their feet for much of the first half.

    Duke dominance from the start

    But Duke largely brushed it off, with Flagg, Kalach Malauch and Tyrese Proctor each scoring eight points in the first half for Duke, which shot 43.8%.

    Bradley led Arizona before halftime with 10 points and two assists, but the Wildcats got just two points from Love. Arizona shot 42.3% overall and was just 3 of 12 from three-point range.

    Unsurprisingly, the game was played within two possessions for nearly the entire half until Sion James drove in for a layup with 43 seconds left in the half, giving Duke the seven-point lead it took into halftime brought along.

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    Bradley hit a 3-pointer on Arizona’s first possession and the Wildcats built a quick 7-2 lead. But Duke led 15-12 through the first eight minutes and held a slight lead for most of the first half.

    Arizona center Motiejus Krivas started his first game of the season after returning in limited form through the Wildcats’ first three games due to a preseason foot injury, while Tennessee transfer Tobe Awaka came off the bench.

    Even though Awaka has been productive starting the first three games of the season, averaging 10.3 rebounds and 12.3 rebounds, suggesting that UA coach Tommy Lloyd may have to make a tough decision if Krivas fully had been acquitted.

    “We’ll see,” Lloyd said Thursday, when asked who could start long-term. “Those are things we have to figure out over the course of the season. I honestly don’t think there’s a 100% right answer, a 100% wrong answer, and I don’t know if (the decision) actually affects the final outcome of the game because they’re both going to play.

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