Duke overpowers the “Vols” by 10 points
By: Adrienne Brown, @EvataTigerRawr
Nowadays, when your hear Duke you also hear freshman guard Austin Rivers or Coach Krzyzewski in the same sentence expecting to sweep the game. However in the quarterfinals of the Maui Invitational Tournament, Trae Golden and Tennessee competitively responded to all of Duke’s plays with a foul or shot. The Volunteers kept up with Duke until the final few minutes of the game where Duke rushed ahead to gain at least a constant six-point lead. While hurting the Volunteers chance to get to the next round, Duke beat the Tennessee with a final score of 77-67.
Trae Golden was an important piece to the frequent offensive jabs Tenneesee made at Duke. With the firing of former coach Bruce Pearl, new coach Cuonzo Martin takes over. The direction for the newly run team was clear; rebuild as a young team. Most of the players that Martin had to work with graduated or left. But the way, Martin’s team handled themselves against top ranked Duke was a stellar performance. Great plays were made by Jeronne Maymon and Cameron Tatum. Maymon was the top scorer for the team with 14 points, 12 rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
With the least play time out of all his starters, forward Ryan Kelly was the lead scorer for Duke in the game. As well as Kelly, the entire line-up made electric plays and fast breaks to create leads of the fighting Tennessee team. Austin Rivers, Seth Curry, and Andre Dawkins are ironically NBA royalty as well as key players to the Blue Devils offense. Not only did they focus on winning but also you can tell that the team did not strain their normal game to win this one. Powerhouse Plumlee brothers made amazing rebounds and must-needed blocks to keep the lead. The Plumlee’s led the defense and continue to contribute to Blue Devil’s undefeated season.
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