Bagley, Allen lead No. 1 Duke past Elon, 97-68 (Nov 10, 2017)
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) Marvin Bagley had 25 points and 10 rebounds in his college debut, and No. 1 Duke opened another season of high expectations by routing Elon 97-68 on Friday night and moving Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski one victory from yet another career milestone.
Grayson Allen added 22 points and made six of the Blue Devils’ 12 3-pointers while Gary Trent Jr. added 17 points and four more 3s.
Duke shot 55 percent – 71 percent while pulling away in the second half – and held the Phoenix to less than 40 percent shooting while looking the part of a team beginning a second straight season atop the AP Top 25 .
One of the tallest Duke teams in school history – this is just the program’s fourth with an average height of at least 6-foot-7 – outrebounded the smaller Phoenix 48-30 while also forcing them into 11 consecutive missed shots during an early, tone-setting 17-0 run.
Coach K had no trouble earning his 999th career victory at Duke. The winningest coach in men’s Division I history has 1,072 victories in a 43-season career that also includes five years at Army.
Dmitri Thompson scored 13 points to lead the Phoenix.
BIG PICTURE
Elon: There’s no shame in losing at Cameron Indoor Stadium – no non-Atlantic Coast Conference team has won here since 2000. Elon has four starters back from a team that went 18-14 a year ago and led the Blue Devils at halftime of their trip-dominated game in Greensboro. The Phoenix missed 22 shots in the first half but rebounded just two of those while falling behind by 20, and were never in the game after that.
Duke: The Blue Devils return only one player (Allen) who averaged more than three points or 8 minutes last season, and didn’t have their second-most important returnee – big man Marques Bolden (strep throat) was on the bench in street clothes. Duke started four freshmen – Bagley, Trent, Wendell Carter and Trevon Duval – for the first time since the Johnny Dawkins-Mark Alarie class in 1982-83 made 23 starts.
UP NEXT
Elon: Plays host to William Peace on Saturday night.
Duke: Plays host to Utah Valley on Saturday night before facing its biggest test of the young season next Tuesday night against No. 2 Michigan State in the Champions Classic in Chicago.
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