Tonight, the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils (29-4, 15-3) faced the 16th seed Robert Morris Colonials (20-15, 12-6) in Charlotte, NC. The Colonials came in winning seven straight games, but this would be their toughest test yet, and an undersized Robert Morris team fell to Blue Devils, 56-85
Duke came out playing like a number one seed, making its first 10 shots, four of them being 3-pointers. With Robert Morris over pursuing around the perimeter and finding itself out of position, senior guard Quinn Cook would take advantage, shooting and making his first three shot from behind the arc.
Soon, the Colonials would find themselves down 22-9 with 12 minutes left in the first half. The Blue Devils were able to take advantage of the Colonials lack of size and passed the ball down under the hoop on almost every possession. With four players 6’9” or taller on Duke’s team, Robert Morris had no answer for the interior offense.
With alley-oops and soft lob passes in the post to freshman center Jahlil Okafor, Robert Morris would struggle to size up and play physical against a player who is taller than anyone else on the Colonials. Junior center Marshall Plumlee, who would be Okafor’s substitute for the night, continued to wreak havoc in the paint.
Robert Morris didn’t help itslef out, taking awkward and off-balanced shots, many of which within the first 10-15 seconds of its possession.
The story of the first half would be all about consistency. With a halftime score of 44-25, the Duke Blue Devils shot 63 percent from the field, grabbed 19 rebounds and had 14 assists. Duke was able to take its time and use height as its biggest weapon scoring 22 of their 44 points from the paint.
Robert Morris would show flashes of good play by spreading the ball around and finding the open man, but the pressuring Blue Devil defense would create bad shooting chances and turnovers. Duke would score 14 points off turnovers and would look to cause the same disruption in the second half.
The second half would start off reminiscent of the first with a Colonial turnover and an ensuing Blue Devil possession that would end with Okafor easily going to the rim and planting two points.
Robert Morris’ freshman guard Marcquise Reed had a strong presence during the whole game with the ability to spin, dance, and maneuver around Duke’s defense, especially from mid-range. Rodney Pryor, along with Reed, started to give the Colonials some momentum in coming within 10 points of the Blue Devils.
However, within the blink of an eye, a barrage of 3-pointers from freshman forward Justise Winslow and freshman guard Tyus Jones would double the deficit within just three minutes. Duke then began to really distance themselves with Plumlee shaking the backboard with dunk after dunk.
The Colonials then started to really fall behind, scoring six points in about the last five minutes of play.
Duke had two players hit 20 points: Okafor and Cook, as well as Plumlee, who had his first career double double.
Robert Morris would see encouraging performance from both Reed and Pryor, combining for 45 points. Senior guard Lucky Jones, who has come up huge in clutch moments for Andy Toole’s team all season, would shoot terribly, making only three out of 14 of his field goals and draining only one shot from behind the arc.
The Duke Blue Devils will face the winner of the St. John’s and San Diego State in the third round.
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