Behind the play of freshman guard Tyus Jones and an all-around strong offensive performance, the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils (8-0) defeated No. 2 Wisconsin (7-1) 80-70 Wednesday night at the Kohl Center.
Jones finished the game with 22 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Blue Devils, who beat a Top 5, nonconference opponent on the road for the first time since 1993. Senior guard Traevon Jackson scored a career-high 25 points, but it wasn’t enough for the Badgers to overcome the hot-shooting Blue Devils.
“I can’t say enough about Jackson,” said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. “We had a couple spurts there where if we’d make a stop, it’s a double-digit game. And all of a sudden he hits a three or he makes a play.”
Duke shot 65.2 percent from the field on the night, becoming the first opposing team in the history of the Kohl Center to make over 60 percent of its shots. After shooting 60 percent in the first half, the Blue Devils hit 15 of their 21 shots in the second half. Coming into the game, UW was holding opponents to just 37.1 percent shooting on the year.
“I would say [Duke] hit some tough shots, but they have good enough players that can do that at times,” said Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan. “To have that many do it on the same night, that’s just not fair. I don’t care what anybody says, they were lights out.”
Duke led for almost the entirety of the second half and only let the Badgers get within three points once in the final 10:16 of the game, making the raucous Kohl Center a nonfactor for most of the second half.
Junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon had 14 points off the bench, while freshman center Jahlil Okafor and senior guard Quinn Cook each chipped in 13 points as well for the Blue Devils, who were playing their first true road game of the season.
“[The players] want to be in these environments. They’re not going to be afraid,” Krzyzewski said. “I’d rather have somebody cheering against us than nobody in the seats, because that’s what these guys want.”
Senior forward Frank Kaminsky scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds as well for Wisconsin, but he and Jackson were the only UW players to finish with double-digit scoring.
Junior forward Sam Dekker finished with just four points, and didn’t attempt a single shot in the final 16 minutes of the game.
As a team, the Badgers shot just 40.7 percent, their lowest field goal percentage of the season, and were 9-25 from the floor in the second half. Wisconsin was outscored 32-22 in the paint and only scored eight second-chance points off 10 offensive rebounds.
The Blue Devils utilized a lot of switches on defense and pressured the Badgers, who didn’t look nearly as sharp on offense as they usually have this season.
“Again, it goes back to, don’t get beat by the things that don’t take any talent: block out, ball fake, make good passes, handle the ball,” Ryan said. “I saw a couple of Globetrotter routines out there, but the problem is that we weren’t playing the Generals.”
Wisconsin scored its first 12 points on 3-pointers, starting out 4-8 from beyond the arc, but missed its next five 3-point attempts of the first half. Though the Badgers hung with the Blue Devils for the first 30 minutes of the game, they were unable to generate enough offense or make enough stops on defense to put themselves in a position to win late in the second half.
“Our guys showed a lot of grit. Our defense was good and our offense efficiency was incredible tonight,” Krzyzewski said. “I’m really proud of my team because I think we beat one of the two or three best teams in the country tonight.”
