Evans' Dagger, Boozer's 29 Points Sends No. 4 Duke Past No. 15 Florida, 67-66

Tuesday, December 2

Durham, N.C.

7:30 p.m.

Duke University

9-0,0-0ACC

Florida

5-3,0-0SEC

Florida

Duke

Evans' Dagger, Boozer's 29 Points Sends No. 4 Duke Past No. 15 Florida, 67-66

12/2/2025 10:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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DURHAM, N.C. – A late three-pointer from Isaiah Evans propelled No. 4 Duke past No. 15 Florida, 67-66, at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 2. The Blue Devils (9-0) were paced on offense by Cameron Boozer, who posted 29 points to help Duke secure the victory over the Gators (5-3) in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Boozer and Evans (13 points) were joined in double-figures by Patrick Ngongba II, who scored 11 points, while also adding five rebounds, five assists and five blocks. Caleb Foster posted six points, five rebounds, two assists and capped his night on the defensive end with a steal in the dying seconds of the game to solidify the Blue Devils' win.

Maliq Brown scored six points and grabbed six rebounds, while swiping two key steals – including the key deflection on Florida's final attempted inbounds pass.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The two teams traded buckets for the first five minutes of the game, before Maliq Brown slammed home his first points of the night at the 13:12 mark to put Duke in front, 11-10.
Florida pulled back in front, 13-12, after a three-pointer shortly before the under-12 timeout. The game remained tied, 19-19, following a Gators dunk with 8:02 on the clock.
Duke closed the half on a 17-5 run, with nine of those points coming from Cameron Boozer, to take a double-digit lead, 36-24, into halftime.
Florida punched back after intermission, scoring 14 of the first 18 points of the frame, pulling back within two, 40-38, with 14:32 remaining. Back-to-back layups by Brown and Isaiah Evans helped Duke stop the run and the Blue Devils built their lead back to nine, 54-45, after six consecutive points from Boozer.
The Gators responded with a 14-5 scoring run across the next six minutes, knotting the score at 59 apiece with just over two and a half minutes left to play. Boozer connected on a deep three-pointer and a contested layup, to keep Duke in the lead, 64-61.
Five straight from the visitors, capped by a three-pointer with less than a minute remaining, pushed Florida in front by two points, 66-64, and triggered a Duke timeout.
Out of the break, Boozer found Evans open for a three-pointer at the top of the key and the sophomore drained the triple to send Duke back in front. With Florida holding possession and searching for a bucket of its own, Caleb Foster forced a Gators' turnover and dove on the loose ball.
After a rebound and timeout by Florida with 1.5 seconds, Brown deflected the attempted inbounds pass, securing Duke's victory with a steal.

NOTES

The victory marked head coach Jon Scheyer's 98th with the Blue Devils.
Duke's 9-0 start is the best open to a season under Scheyer.
- The nine wins are the most to begin a season since the 2017-18 squad started the campaign with 11 consecutive victories.
The Blue Devils are tied for second-longest active win streak, trailing only Nebraska (12).
Dating back to last season, Duke has won 22 consecutive games at home.
- The Blue Devils are now 53-3 (.946) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in four seasons under Scheyer.
Tuesday was the 19th meeting between the two teams.
- Duke is 15-4 in the all-time series against Florida, including three consecutive wins, and is 5-0 at home when playing Florida.
In the ACC/SEC Challenge, Duke is 2-1.
- The Blue Devils have secured consecutive victories in the challenge, with Tuesday's win joining last season's 84-78 victory over No. 2 Auburn.
Duke is 19-7 when playing on Dec. 2.
- When playing on this date, the Blue Devils are 12-1 at home, including six straight since 1996, and have won nine of the last 11 games played.
- Duke is now 6-0 on Dec. 2, when both teams are ranked in the top 25.
The Blue Devils entered the game leading the nation in field goal percentage defense (.340).
- Duke held Florida to 25-of-67 (.373) shooting from the field.
- Duke has held seven of its opponents under 40% shooting from the field.
Duke's defense limited Florida to 66 points, a season low for the Gators. Florida entered the game averaging 85.9 points per game.
- The Blue Devils have held each opponent this season under their respective scoring average.
The Blue Devils' defense forced 13 turnovers and only allowed four assists on Florida's 25 field goals.
- The Gators entered Tuesday night averaging 16.4 assists per game,
Duke blocked 11 shots, its second game this season with double-digit swats, joining the Indiana State game (13 blocks).
- The last time the Blue Devils registered at least 10 blocks, prior to this season, was against Queens on Dec. 30, 2023.
- Tuesday marked the first time under Scheyer that the Blue Devils have multiple games in a season with at least 10 rejections.
Duke finished with an advantage in three of the specialty stats, leading in points in the paint (34-32), points off turnovers (12-11) and bench points (8-6).
The Blue Devils have now secured three victories over top-25 opponents this season, including wins over No. 22 Arkansas and No. 24 Kansas.
Cameron Boozer scored 29 points, including 16 in the first half.
- The freshman also brought in six rebounds, dished two assists and registered one steal.
- Boozer drained three 3-pointers against Florida, his second game this season with at least three triples.
- Boozer now has five 20-point games this season and has finished with at least five rebounds in every game.
Isaiah Evans scored 13 points, including the go-ahead triple with 21 seconds remaining.
- Evans also blocked a career-high five shots and has three games this season with multiple swats.
Patrick Ngongba II stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, a game-high five assists, five rebounds and a career-best five blocks.
- The 6-11 sophomore center entered the contest with two career 3-pointers, and knocked down two of his three shots from long distance against the Gators.
Maliq Brown scored six points and grabbed six caroms.
- Brown made a key deflection with less than two seconds remaining, finishing the game with two steals.
Caleb Foster also scored six points, while adding five rebounds – one shy of his career high on the glass.
- Foster logged the key steal in the dying seconds, forcing a loose ball and diving for possession with less than five seconds.

QUOTES

"That was a big time game. Hats off to Florida. They've got winning DNA. They are tough. They made a great run, and you know they're going to make a run at some time. To go back to our defense in the first half, I thought that was terrific. To start the second half, we didn't quite come out the way that you need to in a game like that. I thought our guys just battled. I am really proud of them. It is a great win. I think I can help them way more. I think there are things for us that we are still figuring out with our group, but end of the day, they are competitors and you got to find a way to make key stops in those moments. The offense, we'll figure out; it will come. [Florida is] good defensively, too. It was just kind of that type of game. To be able to win a game where you do not score as much, both ways, it was a 'grind it out' type of game. Hopefully we can score better in some other games, but you've got to win that way sometimes. I thought our guys made big-time winning plays. Isaiah [Evans], just [had] to hang tough. To make that shot, in the moment, and that execution, Cam [Boozer] made a great pass. I thought that was big. Just for [Isaiah], we just kept telling him [to] focus on the defense, and he ends up with five blocks. You just trust that at some time he is going to hit. Cam, the whole game, was just a warrior. And then, even at the end, Maliq [Brown], tips it. There is a lot to learn, a lot to grow from. Really proud. The crowd was incredible. Incredible. I thought our players felt the energy the whole night. I came in the office two days ago and people were sleeping outside; they were camping out. Just an incredible energy and I thought that made a huge difference tonight. Even when we weren't playing our best, the crowd hung in, stuck with us, and that was a special Cameron moment tonight." - Duke head coach Jon Scheyer
"It was a hard-nosed, tough game. Obviously, [Florida has] a huge front line, so a big thing we talked about was rebounding, being tough. We were super tough today. I'm proud of these guys. Big shot from Slim [Isaiah Evans]. That might've been his first [made] three of the game, but Slim works on that shot all the time and I have faith in him, confidence in him, a big-time playmaker and a big-time shot. And then Maliq Brown coming up with that tip play to finish the game. A lot of people aren't going to talk about that, but that's a huge winning play. We don't know what'll happen if they throw that ball down the court. Great collective team win. I think we showed a lot of toughness. They went on a run. We responded. We stayed calm, cool, collected. I'm proud of my guys." - Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer
"He just said, 'Execute. And then get a stop on defense.' A lot of our plays are read-and-react, so there's a lot of second, third, fourth options out of those plays, but, obviously, I was one of those options. It's going to be hard to guard me and Cam [Boozer] in a pick-and-roll situation, with my shooting and his attacking to the rim. It was simple – I come up and screen [for] Cam and they're going to have to make a decision – either go with Cam and let him go all the way to the paint and tie the game up. [They had to] go with Cam and leave me open or risk him going all the way to the basket, and we know he's a great finisher." - Duke sophomore guard/forward Isaiah Evans on what Scheyer told the team during the timeout before the game-winning three-pointer

UP NEXT

No. 4 Duke (9-0) travels to No. 7 Michigan State (8-0) for a top-10 clash at the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Michigan.
The Blue Devils and Spartans will air live on FOX, with tip off scheduled for noon.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men's basketball, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeMBB".

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