Duke Defense Stifles California in 71-56 Road Victory

Wednesday, January 14

Berkeley, CA

11 p.m.

Duke University

16-1,5-0ACC

California

13-5,1-4ACC

Duke

California

Duke Defense Stifles California in 71-56 Road Victory

1/15/2026 1:14:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)Duke Quotes (PDF)

BERKELEY, Calif. – No. 6 Duke defeated California, 71-56, in front of a sold-out Haas Pavilion on Wednesday, Jan. 14. The Blue Devils (16-1, 5-0 ACC) held the Golden Bears (13-5, 1-4 ACC) to their lowest scoring output in any half this season, limiting the hosts to just 26 points in the final 20 minutes of action.

Cameron Boozer led all scorers with 21 points, and posted his eighth double-double of the season with 13 rebounds. Isaiah Evans and Nikolas Khamenia joined Boozer in double-figures, scoring 17 and 10 points, respectively.

After entering Wednesday's contest averaging 79.8 points per game, California was held to a season-low 56 points, including just 26 after halftime. Duke's defense bristled in the final 12 minutes, holding the Golden Bears to 3-of-13 (.188) shooting from the field, allowing Duke to pull away for the double-digit victory.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Cal scored the first points of the night with an opening three-pointer, before Patrick Ngongba II laid in Duke's first bucket off an Isaiah Evans assist. Cameron Boozer put in back-to-back buckets, tying the game at 7-7 with 14:34 on the clock.
After six unanswered points by the hosts, Evans found the bottom of the net from deep for the first time, narrowing the deficit to just one, 13-12, at the under-12 break. Caleb Foster drilled a trifecta at the 8:42 mark to give the Blue Devils their first lead, 17-15.
An extended 12-2 scoring run by the Golden Bears put them back in front, 27-21, leading to a Duke timeout with just over four minutes before halftime. Dame Sarr cut the margin in half out of the huddle, with his first triple of the contest.
A deep contested three-pointer from Evans sent Duke back in front, 31-30, as the clock ticked under 90 seconds for the first half. A spinning dunk from the sophomore, followed by another deep triple, gave Evans 12 points and forced a California timeout.
Duke closed the first frame on a 13-point scoring run and entered the break with the lead, 37-30.
The Blue Devils tallied two early buckets out of halftime, but the hosts responded with a 7-2 burst to pull within two, 41-39, at the first media timeout of the second frame.
Duke used a 7-2 run of its own, capped by Evans' fourth three-pointer of the night, to get back in front by five, 48-43. The Blue Devils' defense held California without a field goal for nearly four minutes, and a transition three-point play by Nikolas Khamenia stretched Duke's lead to nine, 56-47.
The cushion moved to double-digits, 60-48, and forced a timeout by the Golden Bears with 7:20 on the clock. Boozer surged in the following minutes, scoring seven of Duke's next nine points. During that stretch, the freshman secured his 10th rebound giving Boozer eight double-doubles for the season.
The forward eclipsed 20 points with a slam shortly before the under-four break, giving Boozer his fifth double-double with at least 20 points. A triple from Khamenia iced the contest and sent Duke to the 71-56 victory.

NOTES

Wednesday night marked the first sellout at Haas Pavilion since Feb. 7, 2024.
The Blue Devils have won 27 of their last 28 games against conference opponents.
Wednesday was the sixth meeting between the two teams.
- Duke improved to 4-2 in the all-time series against Cal.
- The Blue Devils have won the last four contests against the Golden Bears.
With the win, Duke earned its eighth Quad 1 win of the season – the most by any team in the country.
- No other team in the country has more than five Quad 1 victories this season.
After going down by six, 27-21, and calling timeout with 4:11 remaining before halftime, Duke responded with a 16-3 scoring run to end the half.
- The Blue Devils scored the final 13 points of the first half.
Duke registered one double-digit scoring run, increasing Duke's kill shot season total to 20.
The Blue Devils' defense held California without a field goal for more than five minutes in the second half (11:47 to 6:36), to help Duke grab control.
- During the stretch, Duke expanded its lead from three (48-45) to 14 (62-48).
Cal began Wednesday night's contest averaging 79.8 points per game.
- The Blue Devils held the Golden Bears to 56 points, a season low for Cal and 23.6 points below their season average.
- Duke's defense stifled the hosts in the second half, allowing just 26 points, the fewest point total in any half for California this season.
The Golden Bears entered Wednesday's game averaging just 9.6 turnovers per game, second-best in the ACC and 19th nationally.
- Duke's defense forced 11 turnovers and scored 20 points off of those takeaways.
Duke swept the specialty stats, out-scoring California in points off turnovers (20-12), points in the paint (42-16), second-chance points (17-2), fast-break points (8-2) and bench points (11-8).
- The 42 points in the paint matched Duke's highest total in the category against a Power 4 team this season (vs. Arkansas, Nov. 27, 2025).
Cameron Boozer led all players with 21 points and 13 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the season.
- Five of his double-doubles have come with at least 20 points.
- Boozer has tallied at least 20 points in 10 games this season.
Isaiah Evans scored 17 points, highlighted by four three-pointers.
- When Evans makes at least three triples, Duke is 10-0 this season and 21-0 during Evans' career.
- Evans led the Blue Devils in plus/minus, finishing the contest at +26.
- On the defensive end, Evans swatted a game-high three shot attempts and collected a steal.
Nikolas Khamenia rounded out Duke's double-digit scoring with 10 points.
- The freshman also added four boards.
Caleb Foster finished just shy of 10 points, with nine. He also brought in four boards and tallied three assists.
Boozer and Maliq Brown joined Foster with three dimes apiece to pace the Blue Devils.

QUOTES

"First, not many times you get a chance to do something you haven't done before. And coming here to play at Cal, just seeing the crowd, seeing the environment, was a great thing for our program. Great test. A ton of respect for Mark [Madsen] and his team, they have really dynamic guards. Offensively, they really scare you. I thought our guys did a really good job on defense. And that's been the point of emphasis for us, is how to sustain the defensive intensity, the defensive awareness that you need. You look at what those guards did, and I think that's a credit to Dame [Sarr], Caleb [Foster], Cayden [Boozer], Isaiah [Evans], Nik [Khamenia]. Our perimeter defenders, they did a really good job, and then our bigs did a great job just controlling the game on that end, I thought that was the difference. Offensively, 42 points in the paint, that's a big deal. I just want to thank our Duke fans that stayed up to watch us, at one in the morning or whatever it was. We've got amazing fans, and you guys staying awake to watch us and support us means a lot." - Duke head coach Jon Scheyer

UP NEXT

No. 6 Duke (16-1, 5-0 ACC) remains on its west-coast swing, taking on Stanford (14-4, 3-2 ACC) on Saturday, Jan. 17.
The Blue Devils and Cardinal tip off at 6 p.m., with the game broadcast on ACC Network.

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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