Jeremy Roach leads Duke past Virginia
Jeremy Roach's consistent play and 10 late points from AJ Griffin led Duke to victory over Virginia in Charlottesville on Wednesday.
Duke won it’s sixth straight Wednesday, as it exacted revenge against Virginia in Charlottesville. The matchup, which has developed into a hotly contested rivalry, came down to the bitter end once again.
This time it was the Blue Devils who came out on top with the 65-61 victory, evening the season series at one win apiece.
Duke’s win came thanks to a brilliant final 3:39 from AJ Griffin, and consistent play throughout the night from the Blue Devils’ three Virginia natives — Jeremy Roach, Trevor Keels and Mark Williams.
Griffin, though, singlehandedly broke Virginia’s late momentum. The Cavaliers, after falling behind by eight points with 6:48 remaining, and Duke appearing to gain control of the game, went on a 7-0 run over the next 1:46.
Just like that, the Cavaliers had changed the course of the game, and regained its confidence. Duke managed just one shot attempt while turning the ball over once during the stretch. One could almost feel a repeat of the loss in Durham taking shape.
Then Griffin emerged from the bench with 3:49 on the clock and Duke scoreless over the last three minutes. After making just 1-of-8 from the field and 1-of-5 from 3-point range up to that point, the freshman took a confident and fearless shot from beyond the arc and drilled it just 10 seconds after re-entering the game.
From there, Griffin took over. He scored seven more points, shooting a perfect 3-of-3 during the stretch, including two game-sealing free throws with just 1.8 seconds remaining in the game.
Griffin scored 10 of Duke’s final 12 points to help the Blue Devils leave with their 24th victory of the season.
As outstanding as Griffin was in those final minutes, had it not been for the play of Roach, Keels and Williams throughout the rest of the game, the Blue Devils might not have even been in position to win the game.
Roach, who came off the bench to play 32 minutes, was the single biggest difference maker for Duke. He led the way for the Blue Devils with 15 points, making 6-of-7 shots, including all three of his attempts from 3-point range.
He was assertive, deliberate and intelligent with the ball all game long, turning it over just once on the night. His 15 points were a season high, and considering he had developed into a distributor first over the last two months, his awareness of what Duke needed from him in this particular situation was quite literally a game changer.
Roach actively looked for scoring opportunities. As a result, he put pressure on Virginia’s Kihei Clark, making him work on both ends of the floor.
That is perhaps one of the biggest, most overlooked aspect of Roach’s impact on the game. Clark was lights out in the first half. The Cavaliers are notorious this season for their poor perimeter shooting.
As it is, Duke chose to pack the paint and takeaway easy opportunities in the paint and force Virginia to shoot from the perimeter. They did that — to a degree. Outside of Clark, the Cavaliers were 0-of-3 from long range. From that standpoint, Duke was doing its job — Virginia was not getting the easy looks they had hoped for, and when they did they weren’t falling.
At least that’s the case unless their name was Clark. He made a career-high six 3-pointers in the first half alone. Duke’s defense took its chances with giving Clark space to shoot in response to his 36% shooting average from 3 over the course of the season. The choice was deliberate in an attempt to prevent him from being able to drive past defenders and get into the lane.
That’s when Clark is most dangerous, as he tends to draw attention on his drive, which ultimately results in him dumping the ball off to teammates for easy buckets in the paint. Duke took that away. But Clark responded with 18 first half points, all coming off the 3s.
No other Cavalier scored more than 3 points in the first half. So, the give and take had mixed bag results.
When the second half arrived, Duke had refocused its approach to closeout and smother Clark as best they could. Roach was a key part to that strategy. Ultimately it worked, as Clark was held to just seven points and five shot attempts, including an 0-of-2 effort from 3. In fact, Clark didn’t score his first field goal attempt until 12:41 into the second half.
Roach was a major reason for that.
Keels was also stellar for Duke, scoring 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting in the game. He was 3-of-4 in the second half, and made big shots in critical moments for Duke. One of those came with just 54 seconds to go in the game when the freshman picked off Clark’s pass after Griffin helped redirect the ball and ran the length of the floor, finishing with a layup to put Duke ahead 62-57. He later made one of two free throws with 15 seconds to go giving Duke a four point advantage.
Though Williams made and attempted just one shot in the second half, he finished the night with eight points, but more importantly 10 rebounds and four blocks.
The trio of Virginia natives combined for 36 points on 15-of-20 from the field. They also combined for 16 of Duke’s 33 rebounds.
From an overall defensive perspective, Duke was not bad in the first half. In fact, outside of Clark’s career night, Mike Krzyzewski’s squad executed its plan fairly well. Clark simply made shots he normally does not hit — at least at that consistent of a clip.
In the second half, as previously mentioned, Clark’s performance forced the Blue Devils to changes some things up. It worked against Clark, but did allow Jayden Gardner and Reece Beekman to find opportunities in the second that did not exist in the first.
The give and take resulted in Gardner scoring 13 of his 16 points in the second half, while Beekman scored nine of his 11 in the final 20 minutes. Those two took advantage of their opportunities, which afforded the Cavaliers to stay in the game and make it interesting in the final moments.
Overall, Duke executed its plan. And thanks to Griffin’s ability to move on from earlier struggles, and Roach and Keels’ unwillingness to let Duke lose in their home state, the Blue Devils’ held off a strong Virginia team.
The fact Duke managed to leave with the win, even with Paolo Banchero having an off night that saw him finish with just eight points on 2-of-13 shooting, speaks to the team’s growth. The Blue Devils have two more road games — Syracuse and Pitt — before returning to Durham for Krzyzewski’s final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.