NCAA Tournament First Round Recap - Duke vs Arkansas-Pine Bluff

(1) Duke 73, (16) Arkansas-Pine Bluff 44

The late Jim Valvano, when he was the head coach at North Carolina State, always used to say that you had to watch out for those teams with hyphens in their names in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. They were the ones who would always sneak up on you and deliver a shocking upset, Valvano liked to say.

Friday night in Jacksonville, Fla., Arkansas-Pine Bluff had the hyphen but not much else. The top-seeded Duke Blue Devils took control of the game from the beginning and beat the 16th-seeded Golden Lions, 73-44.

Four Blue Devils scored in double figures. Kyle Singler led the way, posting a double-double with 22 points, and the junior forward added 10 rebounds. Guard John Scheyer scored 13, forward Lance Thomas 12 and guard Nolan Smith chipped in 10.

Duke (30-5) never trailed and held a double-digit lead for the last 33 minutes of play. The Blue Devils were up by 19 at intermission and they picked up right where they left off in the second half. The score was 45-22 four minutes into the second half.

A couple of minutes after Duke gained that 23-point lead, Arkansas Pine-Bluff produced a faint glimmer of hope as an Allen Smith layup pulled the Golden Lions within 19. But Duke’s Smith responded immediately with a bucket and Arkansas-Pine Bluff never again got its deficit under 20 points. At the 2:31 mark after Duke’s Smith hit a short jump make the score 70-39, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski started to empty his bench.

The Golden Lions (18-16) started the season 0-11 and had to win the SWAC tournament to qualify for the NCAAs. They beat Winthrop on Tuesday in the opening round game and were rewarded with a trip to Jacksonville to face the Blue Devils.

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Nobody on the Arkansas-Pine Bluff team managed to score in double digits. Guard Tavaris Washington lead the way with nine points as the Golden Lions shot just 32 %. They had few open shots and when they did get good looks their efforts usually found nothing but iron.

Duke led 39-20 at halftime. The Blue Devils never put together a prolonged scoring run, but they steadily built their lead throughout most of the first half.

Scheyer dropped a three-point field goal to put Duke up 11-3 with just over three minutes gone in the game. The three pointer was an exception to the Blue Devils’ overall strategy. They attempted just five in the first half, hitting two.

Duke took advantage of its size advantage over the Golden Lions by pounding the ball inside to the 6-8 Singler and 7-1 center Brian Zoubek. Singler was 5 of 6 from the field in the first half and he scored 13 points with six rebounds.

Duke led 13-5 after about four minutes of play and 21-7 midway through the first half. The Blue Devils stretched the lead to 18 with just over six minutes left on the half on a Scheyer layup.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff couldn’t get anything going offensively due to Duke’s advantages in size and overall athletic ability. The Golden Knights shot 25 % in the first half and the Blue Devils enjoyed a 20-11 advantage in rebounds. Since Arkansas-Pine Bluff had no alternative but to hack away when Duke got the ball down low, the Blue Devils had their customary advantage at the foul line. The Blue Devils made 15 free throws in the first half while the Golden Knights attempted only six.

By: Rich Tandler
ACC-Fans Guest Writer