Duke basketball downs Maryland-Eastern Shore, 82-55. What we learned in Blue Devils’ win

Duke’s closing act of nonconference play put its freshmen on display Saturday.

Using an all-freshman starting lineup for the first time in the program’s storied history, the No. 15 Blue Devils hammered Maryland-Eastern Shore, 82-55, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke (10-2) has nothing but ACC games the rest of the season when the schedule resumes following finals week on Dec. 20 at Wake Forest.

Junior guard Jeremy Roach sat out the game as the medical staff opted to have him rest the ailing toe on his right foot, which he injured in a 75-56 loss to Purdue on Nov. 27.

That opened a spot for freshman forward Dariq Whitehead to get his first start of the season. He joined four classmates — guard Tyrese Proctor, center Dereck Lively II and forwards Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell — as starters.

“It’s not something we are trying to do for that reason,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “It just organically ended up that way. Each of those five guys, they’re talented and they’re about the team and they’re just trying to figure it all out. They did a good job out there.”

Duke had started four freshmen in a game during four other seasons, most recently during the 2018-19 season when freshmen Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett, Cam Reddish and Tre Jones led the Blue Devils to an ACC championship and an NCAA tournament Elite Eight finish.

Against Maryland-Eastern Shore on Saturday, Whitehead and Proctor led Duke with 15 points each while Filipowski scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

“We have five guys that I think can play at any level,” Proctor said. “We all believe in ourselves. I think we have a high level of trust, which is one of our mottos. I think just everyone being on the same page was big for us.”

The Blue Devils blitzed Maryland-Eastern Shore (3-7) with an early 11-0 run on the way to a taking a 30-9 lead during the first half.

Here are other notable things the Blue Devils showed in the win:

Roach takes a veteran day off

Duke’s lone team captain and the only returning starter from last season’s Final Four team, Roach rested his nagging right foot injury on Saturday.

The 6-2 Roach had previously started every game for Duke this season.

But with only two games scheduled the rest of December following Saturday’s game, the opportunity to get him an extended break presented itself and Duke’s medical staff took advantage. Scheyer said he insisted Roach take the game off.

In three games since he hurt the right toe on Nov. 27, Roach has played well. He scored 22 points on Tuesday night in New York when the Blue Devils beat Iowa, 74-62.

Though Duke won, the Blue Devils missed their floor leader as they committed a season-high 19 turnovers.

An assertive Lively

Starting his ninth game of the season despite missing a month of practice due to straining a right calf muscle in October, Lively is still not performing like a player projected to be a first-round pick in next summer’s NBA draft.

He entered Saturday averaging 4.0 points and 3.2 rebounds while playing 17.2 minutes per game.

But the 7-1 Lively played his most aggressive overall game against the smaller Hawks. He blocked four shots in the first half alone before finishing with eight points, nine rebounds and five blocks for the game. He played 21 minutes.

“Derek made some really nice plays of the room to protect our basket,” Scheyer said.

Getting Lively to play 30 minutes a game, while extrapolating that production over the increased playing time, would go a long way toward making Duke the Final Four contender it intends to be.

Whitehead starts

Like Lively, Whitehead isn’t producing up to preseason expectations due to injury. The 6-7 Whitehead fractured his right foot on Aug. 29, had surgery the following day and sat out Duke’s first three games.

Also projected to be a first-round pick in the NBA draft if he leaves Duke following this season, Whitehead’s first start on Saturday showed he’s getting closer to finding his stride.

Whitehead missed his first five shots and was 1 of 6 from the field in the first half. But he caught fire after halftime, finishing 6 of 14 from the field. He played a season-high 25 minutes after playing 21 minutes against Iowa on Tuesday night.

“I’m starting to get the feel now, starting to make more shots now,” Whitehead said. “I’d say I’m probably 95%. We’ve got a 10-day stretch that I’m going to take advantage of. After that stretch, I feel like I should be ready to go.”

Defense stays strong

Maryland-Eastern Shore shot just 39.3% while committing 18 turnovers against Duke. In Duke’s 11 regular-season nonconference games, only Ohio State (47.3%), Kansas (46.3%), Purdue (44.8%) and Bellarmine (42.6%) shot better than 40% against the Blue Devils.

Duke entered Saturday’s game allowing its opponents to shoot 39.8%, which was No. 67 nationally among all Division I teams.

The Blue Devils have been even more impressive in stopping 3-pointers, as their opposition entered Saturday shooting 26.1% from behind the arc. That’s 10th best in the country.

“You have to play every possession on defense,” Scheyer said. “That’s what we’ve talked about. We’re gonna make mistakes on offense. We’re gonna miss some shots, but you can’t take possessions off on defense. I’m proud of them for buying in and proud of what we’ve done.”