DURHAM, N.C. ? Duke fans took advantage of their first opportunity to see the 2008-09 Blue Devils in game action on Saturday at the annual Blue-White Scrimmage. A sellout crowd watched the team play two 15-minute scrimmages, with the score tied 45-45 at the beginning of play, at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Balanced scoring and hot shooting led the White Squad to a 97-74 victory in the first of two 15-minute situational scrimmages as three players reached double-figures. Junior co-captain Gerald Henderson led the way with 16 points while sophomore Kyle Singler scored 12 points and junior co-captain Jon Scheyer contributed 10. As a unit, the White team shot 80.0 percent (20-of-25) from the field, including 71.4 percent (5-of-7) from three-point range, in the opening 15 minutes.
“Everyone is playing well," Henderson said. "[The fans and the media] got a good glimpse of what guys can do from play today. I think everyone played pretty decent today. Obviously there are areas where everybody can get better, but it's a long season and there's a lot of time to get better and I'm sure that'll happen.”
Henderson scored the opening basket of the scrimmage driving the ball off a screen to the middle of the court and laying the ball off the glass for the basket. Henderson showed his creativity later in the game driving across the lane making a circus lay up with is right hand drawing the foul. Henderson was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field knocking down all seven of his foul shots.
Singler displayed both his outside and inside game making all five of his shots from the floor including a perfect 2-for-2 from the free throw line The sophomore knocked down two threes, a 15-foot jumper and finished twice around the basket. The 6'8” forward also added 4 rebounds.
Scheyer knocked down 4-of-6 from the field including two threes and dished out three assists.
“It shows that the group can be very explosive, when Kyle [Singler], G (Gerald Henderson), and Jon [Scheyer] are playing at the top of their game," Krzyzewski said. "Those three kids are the guys that you try to build around. Miles [Plumlee] did a very good job on both teams. He protected the basket well.”
Freshman Miles Plumlee added eight points and three rebounds in his first game in front of the Cameron Crazies making all four of his field goal attempts.
"It's a big step up from high school," Plumlee said. "For me, I know I have to really work on my defense. Being the big guy, you can kind of communicate to everyone, so I have to get a lot better on my communication and defense to help the team out. If I do that, I think my role is just going to be finishing plays because we've got a lot of other great guys that already know what they're doing so I'm just going to play off them.”
The Blue Team was paced by senior co-captain Greg Paulus and junior Martynas Pocius with eight each. Junior Brian Zoubek chipped in six points, knocking down all four of his free throws and pulling in a team high three rebounds.
The Blue Devil football team, on their traditional Blue Devil Walk before kickoff, made their way into Cameron Indoor Stadium at the 10:17 mark of the first scrimmage taking time to shake hands with the basketball players and head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
“It's exciting to see the Duke football program really turning around and winning some games," Smith said. "The coach is a great coach. From what I hear he seems a lot like Coach K. That's exciting to hear. We have a great relationship with all of the football players, and we want them to win. We want this to be a school where people come watch a basketball game and then go straight to the football game and keep the same intensity. It's a great feeling and makes a great college atmosphere.”
In the second game, sophomore Nolan Smith and Pocius led the way for the Blue squad with 11 points each in the 79-70 victory.
Smith shot 3-of-6 and 2-of-3 from behind the arc pulling in four rebounds and handing out three assists.
“Nolan [Smith] played really well throughout," Krzyzewski said. "I thought he complemented those three kids in the first period. In the second half, he stepped it up because he wasn't with them, and showed really good leadership and defense. Dave [McClure]'s defense on G in the second period was good.”
Pocius went 3-of-4 from the floor, including one three-point field, and made 4-of-5 from the free throw line. Seniors Jordan Davidson and David McClure along with Zoubek chipped in with four points each.
After strong defensive play for the first five minutes, a three-pointer by freshman Elliot Williams gave the White team a 51-50 edge. The Blue Squad responded with an 11-2 run that the Blue Team couldn't recover from. The run was started by a McClure lay-in and then back-to-back baskets from Pocius, a dunk on a fast break followed by a three pointer from the left corner.
The White Team was paced by eight points from Singler and seven from Henderson. Also scoring for the White Squad were junior Lance Thomas with three, Paulus and Scheyer with two and Williams with three.
Henderson led all scorers with 23 total points in the two 15-minute sessions. He was 6-of-8 from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range. The Merion, Pa., native also knocked down all nine of his free throw attempts and grabbed a scrimmage high eight rebounds. Singler scored 20 on 8-of-12 shooting and also had seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Pocius added 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting and Smith filled the stat line with 17 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Scheyer added 12 points, four rebounds and seven assists on the day, while Zoubek and Paulus each had 10 points
“[Having fun] is definitely something that we've been emphasizing," Scheyer said. "I think that what goes along with that is when you're winning, you're having fun. Obviously, if you play the right way ? if we move the ball and play tenacious defense ? it'll be a really fun year. It's not going to be fun if we just go out there and assume things are going to be handed to us. For us, as long as we work hard and do all the things we're supposed to do, it should be fun along the way.”
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