No. 6 Duke 88, William & Mary 67
DURHAM, N.C., Sporting Alert — Frank Jackson scored 19 points, Amile Jefferson grabbed another double-double, and the injured hit No. 6 Duke eased to an 88-67 victory over William & Mary at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Duke, which improved to 5-1 on the season, was again without freshmen stars Jayson Tatum, Harry Giles and Marques Bolden and, although Tatum was in uniform.
Monk Scores 23, No. 1 Kentucky Beats Cleveland State 101-70
Junior guard Grayson Allen, meanwhile, added 17 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Jefferson collected a third successive double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Blue Devils, who won their third straight since their loss to Kansas last week.
“It’s about time I made some shots,” Allen said. “It felt better to see the ball go in the net.
“The confidence in my shooting never left me. I just had to make them, and finally tonight I was able to make a few.”
Also reaching double figures in scoring for Duke on Wednesday night were Luke Kennard, who finished with 11 points and Matt Jones, who hit two 3-pointers on his way to scoring 10 for the home side.
Kennard also added eight rebounds, six assists and two steals for the Blue Devils, who shot 50-percent on 30 for 60 shooting from the floor.
Jack Whitman and Daniel Dixon each scored 13 points for William & Mary (2-2), which also collected 11 points and five rebounds from Omar Prewitt.
“We’ve played two teams we were better than, and should have won, and played two teams … in Louisville and Duke, Top 10 teams in the country that would have taken great performances for us to win,” said Tribe coach Tony Shaver.
Duke started the game slowly but picked the pace up to take a 46-30 lead at halftime.
Mike Krzyzewski’s side then shot 52 percent after the break, outscored the Tribe 42-37 in the second half to stretched the lead over the 20 point range, and outrebounded the visitors 39-25 overall.
Tatum Dress Out, Bolden and Giles Warmed-up
Meanwhile, Tatum dressed out in his No. 0 uniform throughout the contest on Wednesday night, but the college rookie never left the bench.
Bolden and Giles also took part in the pregame warmups for Duke but were also held out.
With the victory on Wednesday night, the Blue Devils have now won 127 consecutive non-conference home games.
The last time Duke fell in a non-conference home game was in 2000 against St. John’s when Giles was two months away from just his second birthday.
William & Mary went into the game in high spirit but again failed to beat a ranked team for the first time on the road.
