Defense, Keels carry Duke past Pitt

Trevor Keels had a career night and Duke's defense stymied Pitt, as they finished their regular season road schedule with an 86-56 victory.

Pitt and Jeff Capel honored Coach K prior to Tuesday’s game (Photo Credit: Duke Athletics).

Mike Krzyzewski and Duke closed out the regular season road scheduled Tuesday with a dominating 86-56 victory over Pitt, marking the team’s eighth straight win away from home. 

It’s the second game in a row in which the Blue Devils have knocked off their opponent by 25 points or better. While the competition level was not the best Duke has seen this season, it is still worth noting how Krzyzewski’s squad appears to be hitting its stride with the ACC and NCAA tournaments looming. 

As the old saying in sports goes — you want to be peaking at the end of the season. 

Duke is doing exactly that — in more ways than one. 

This team has been strong all season long from a chemistry standpoint, but it appears to be on an entirely different level at this stage of the year. They are also playing some of their best defense of the year. And on the flip side of that, the offense is hitting strides that most have been waiting to see since the regular season opened. 

It seems as if there’s a new player stepping up each night. Tuesday was another example, as freshman Trevor Keels lit up the Panthers for a career-high 27 points on 10 of 15 shooting, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range. 

The Panthers had no answer for the sharpshooter, who scored 15 of those 27 points in the first half. Paolo Banchero had another big night for Duke, scoring 21 points on 7 of 10 from the field and 3 of 3 from long range. 

While Banchero was fresh off a 21 point effort against Syracuse on Saturday, Keels took just four shots in that contest and ended the night with four points. On that night it was Mark Williams (28 points) and AJ Griffin (20 points) who stepped up and put together a huge effort. 

The previous game, it was Jeremy Roach, who led the charge for Duke. 

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The point — Duke has a lot of weapons and right now Krzyzewski and the coaching staff is seeing different guys lift the squad each night and yet the team’s flow does not seem to suffer one bit. It’s a testament to that chemistry that is off the charts at this late stage of the campaign. 

Keels and Banchero certainly carried Duke offensively, but the beauty of it all is that the others don’t simply stand around and watch as they dominate. Wendell Moore Jr. continues to be a model of consistency. He flew under the radar to a degree, scoring 13 points while grabbing six rebounds and handing out five assists. 

Meanwhile, Griffin scored in double digits again, finishing with 12 points after posting eight in the second half. He also led the Blue Devils with seven rebounds. 

As a whole, Duke shot 59.3% from the field for the game thanks to a lights out second half that saw them connect on 70.4% of their shot attempts. 

Duke’s prowess from the 3-point line was also impressive. The team made 11 of 22 from long range, but more impressively, the starters as a whole went 10 of 16 from 3. 

With all of that in mind - and the obvious fact that Duke’s offense was quite impressive - this win is probably best attributed to the team’s overall defensive effort. The Blue Devils’ first half effort is of particular importance. 

Duke came out of the locker room much like they did against Syracuse — throwing haymakers from the jump. The Blue Devils held a 16-3 advantage just 3:33 into the game, making six of their first seven shots. 

The Blue Devils did cool down for a bit with Pitt even cutting the lead to just nine points with 5:25 to go in the half. But Duke closed things out with a 9-1 run, and went into the break with a 17 point lead. 

Pitt could never really capitalize on a few offensive droughts from Duke, primarily because of the defensive effort. They shot just 27.6% in the first half, including an abysmal 18.2% from 3-point range. 

Trevor Keels scored a career-high 27 points against Pitt (Photo Credit: Duke Athletics).

The Panthers also turned the ball over eight times in the opening half while allowing three blocks and two steals from Duke. The second half was a lot better for Pitt, as they made 57.1% from the floor, however, they did allow three more steals. 

Consequently, Duke finished the game with 21 points off turnovers. On the other hand, Pitt managed to turn Duke’s six turnovers into just six points. 

Duke’s lone struggle — though not a major one — was completing the defensive conversion at times, as Pitt posted 10 offensive rebounds. However, Duke allowed just six second chance points off those rebounds. 

Shots were contested for most of the night and the Blue Devils closed off passing lanes quite well. 

The game marked the ninth time this season in which Duke has allowed 59 or fewer points in a game. Four of those came in ACC play with Pitt, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech each recording games under the 59 point threshold. 

As noted, Duke is playing its best basketball at the right time, and everything is clicking at the current moment. Could that change? Sure. Only time will tell, but the team’s chemistry is making this a very dangerous basketball team heading into the final regular season contest and ACC Tournament.