Mitchell and McCain Pace No. 9 Duke in 90-60 Win

Friday, November 17

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

3-1,0-0ACC

Bucknell

1-4,0-0Patriot

Bucknell

Duke

Mitchell and McCain Pace No. 9 Duke in 90-60 Win

11/17/2023 8:36:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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DURHAM – The No. 9 Duke men's basketball finished with four players in double-figures, including a double-double from Jared McCain, to defeat Bucknell, 90-60, on Friday night. The Blue Devils (3-1) were led by Mark Mitchell, who poured in a career-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting and dished 23 assists as a team – a season-best.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Jared McCain got Duke on the board, knocking down a corner three-pointer just over a minute into the game. Back-to-back dunks by Mark Mitchell and Kyle Filipowski quickly gave the Blue Devils a 7-2 lead.
An 8-0 run helped Duke extend its lead to double-digits for the first time, 19-9, before the Bison drew within five at the under-12 media timeout.
Mitchell became the first Blue Devil in double-figures, laying in his 10th point of the half with just under 10 minutes remaining in the half. The sophomore connected on a three-pointer on Duke's next trip down the floor to give the Blue Devils a 29-19 edge and force a Bucknell timeout.
The two teams traded baskets as the half wore on, with Duke remaining ahead, 33-26, as the clock ticked under five minutes to go before halftime. An 11-0 burst to close the half helped the Blue Devils establish control, 44-29.
Three-pointers by Proctor, Roach and McCain, along with a layup by Mitchell, started the half with Duke on an 11-4 run and a 55-33 lead.
Caleb Foster connected on a shot from deep with exactly 15 minutes remaining, quickly followed up by a layup from Proctor and McCain's third three-pointer of the night. A layup by Bucknell snapped the Blue Devils' 12-point surge with just over 13 minutes left to play.
Duke hovered around a 30-point lead for the remainder of the game, closing out the 90-60 win as Jared McCain secured the first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

NOTES

Friday night was the fourth all-time meeting between Duke and Bucknell – the Blue Devils are now 4-0 in the series.
In the game following the Champions Classic, Duke is now 13-0 all-time.
The Blue Devils have won those games by a margin of 22.3 points and have won the last five contests by 34, 22, 26, 34 and 30, respectively.
Duke finished with 23 assists and just seven turnovers, a 3.2 assist-turnover ratio – the best ratio for the Blue Devils so far this season.
Duke connected on 13 three-pointers on Friday night, the most by the team so far this season and the first time the Blue Devils have hit double-digit shots from deep.
The final tally for second-chance points was 23-0, in favor of Duke.
Friday night marked the 509th consecutive game at Cameron Indoor Stadium that was sold out. The last time Duke did not have a sellout at home was on Nov. 6, 1990, against Boston College.
The streak is the longest current (by time) in either men's college basketball or the NBA.
During the streak, Duke's record is now 462-47 (.908).
Duke has now connected on at least one three-pointer in 1,193 straight games, the second-longest streak nationally.
Jared McCain tallied the first double-double by a Blue Devil this season, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
McCain finished 5-of-8 from the field, including 5-of-7 from beyond the arc – the most three-pointers made by a Duke player in a game so far this season.
Mark Mitchell scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting while also going a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe and grabbing six rebounds.
Mitchell set a new career-high for points scored, surpassing the 18 he tallied against Jacksonville last season.
Duke is now 17-1 when Mitchell scores at least 10 points.
Caleb Foster dished a team-high six assists to go alongside zero turnovers, while scoring nine points and reeling in four rebounds.
Ryan Young matched his career-high for assists with five dimes on Friday night. He has now tallied at least three assists in two of Duke's first four games.
Young also scored two points and is now 14 points away from reaching 1,000 career points.

QUOTES

We have good guys that want to be coached, that want to be pushed. And so, it's up to us to challenge them and to do that every day. And so, they've responded in every game, because I haven't been necessarily the most positive after these games. I've been very honest. I've been very honest. Like for where we need to get to, here are the things we need to do. And like I thought yesterday, we probably had one of our best practices yesterday. And that's a tough thing coming off a Michigan State game, day off, anxious to play today, and they've embraced it. So, to see some improvement is great. Are we where we want to be? Absolutely not. Was this a good step? Yes, it was another good step." -- head coach Jon Scheyer on the team's improvement so far this season
"I think I just had it going tonight. I don't think it's anything crazy. I think that when I play aggressive like that, with my size and skillset, I think I can do a lot of different things on the court. Tonight, I had just had it going." -- sophomore Mark Mitchell on his career-high 20 points
"I do the same thing and continue the same routine. There is obviously going to be ups and downs in this whole season and you just have to maintain; don't get too high or too low. I watched the Kobe [Bryant] interview actually. He talks about failure, and he talks about losing and how you just got to learn from it. There are lessons from every single game. I watched it right before the game, and that's what I took from it: always learning, watch the film, and see what you can do better." -- freshman Jared McCain on his pregame routine

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