Duke vs Gonzaga Basketball Recap

Duke 76, Gonzaga 41

The Duke Blue Devils might have trouble later in the season against lightning-fast backcourts and polished opponents with appreciable depth, but the Gonzaga Bulldogs don't fit those categories. On a suspense-free afternoon in New York, Mike Krzyzewski's roster felt right at home inside the familiar confines of Madison Square Garden.

A Duke team that was playing its third game this season in The World's Most Famous Arena easily throttled the impotent Zags. Coach K's crew sent Mark Few's lineup sprawling to the canvas in a mercy killing that could have been compared to a fourth-round knockout.

After limiting Duke to eight points in the game's first 10 minutes, Gonzaga owned a 10-8 lead at the 9:50 mark of the first half. In decent shape at the quarter-mile pole despite a sluggish offensive start, the Bulldogs had every reason to think they could hang with Duke in an old-fashioned street fight.

The squad from Spokane, Wash., couldn't have known just how errant that expectation would prove to be.

Duke - who held Connecticut to just 59 points earlier this season at The Garden - flexed its defensive muscles to an even greater degree against Gonzaga. The Blue Devils held the champions of the West Coast Conference to just two points over the next six minutes and 55 seconds, turning that 10-8 deficit into a 26-12 lead with 2:55 left in the half. That's right: Gonzaga mustered just 12 points in the first 17 minutes of action against an active, tenacious and unrelenting defense thrown down by the dudes from Durham, N.C.

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As bad as things were for Gonzaga in the first half - Duke took a 31-17 lead to the halftime locker room - they'd get worse in the second stanza. A team that reached the Sweet 16 last season (before losing to Duke's archrival, North Carolina, in the regional semifinals) didn't even look like an NCAA Tournament club in this contest, which fizzled and disintegrated as much as the voice of frog-throated CBS broadcaster Verne Lundquist. The Bulldogs scored just two points in a stretch of seven minutes and 32 seconds midway through the second half, and by the end of that death-delivering drought, Duke owned a commanding 61-30 margin.

It's worth asking the following question: How could Duke win by 35 on a day when star forward Kyle Singler scored just nine points and the Plumlee brothers - Miles and Mason - combined for just six?

Easy - Gonzaga shot just 28 percent for the game, hit only one 3-pointer in 10 tries, and bricked more than half of its free throws, going 10-of-21 from the charity stripe. No Bulldog hit double figures in scoring, and the team's leading scorer, Robert Sacre, went 2-of-12 from the field. Duke guards Jon Scheyer (20 points) and Nolan Smith (24) outscored Gonzaga by themselves. That's a testament not just to the Blue Devils' ballyhooed backcourt, but to a defensive scheme that bewildered Gonzaga standouts Demetri Goodson (two points, two turnovers) and Matt Bouldin (four points on 1-of-7 shooting).

Duke found a vulnerable opponent on Saturday and pounced at every instance of opportunity. With more defense like this, the Blue Devils - in need of a flinty and feisty persona - could make life very difficult for North Carolina and the rest of the ACC.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer