Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
5-1
No. 4 Duke
7-0
Men's Basketball Suffers First Loss at No. 4 Duke
November 30, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Rebounding was the difference for the Blue Devils, who held a 43-25 margin on the glass and scored 50 points in the paint. Amile Jefferson pulled down a game-high 12 boards, while Jahlil Okafor had a double-double with 21 points and eight rebounds. Tyus Jones also scored in double figures with 16 and Quinn Cook and Rasheed Sulaimon each put in 13 as Duke improved to 7-0. Kyle Wilson and Tanner Plomb led Army offensively 19 points each and Dylan Cox finished with 11 for the Black Knights.
"I think the team did a good job handling the atmosphere," head coach Zach Spiker said. "Duke is a very good basketball team. The difference in this game was the number of hustle plays and 50-50 balls from the free throw line ended up in made three-pointers. When you don't do the little things well against a team like this, the gap gets bigger. When you want to close the gap, you have to get every single loose ball and we didn't do that today.”
Army trailed 12-11 following Cox's transition layup a little more than seven minutes into the contest. On Duke's next possession, Jones drained a three pointer late in the shot clock to spark a run of nine consecutive points and 15 of the next 18 and the Blue Devils went up 27-14 at the seven-minute mark. Okafor scored six points of his 11 first-half points during the stretch and Duke had 28 points in the paint before intermission.
The Black Knights put in five of the next seven to trim the deficit to 10 when Wilson made three at the line on the other side of a media timeout. With two minutes to play in the first half, Wilson connected on a baseline jumper and a Duke miss led to a straightaway three-pointer by Luke Morrison. The triple pulled Army within nine (37-28) and prompted Duke to call timeout with 1:48 left.
Okafor had a dunk and Jones' layup ended the scoring before the break. Wilson, the Patriot League's leading scorer, had 17 points at halftime as Army went into the locker room facing a 41-28 hole, its largest of the season.
Army got within single digits when Cox finished his second straight layup at the rim a couple minutes into the period, before Duke extended the lead back to 15, where it hovered for the next five minutes.
Back-to-back Plomb threes cut Duke's lead to 58-47 at 12:57 of the second half, but over a four-minute strech Duke pulled away with an 18-4 run. Okafor slammed for two and then a pair at the line helped the home team regain its 15-point advantage. Okafor went back to the line, where he made the first, and the Blue Devils pulled down the offensive rebound that led to a wide open three for Cook. The trip pushed Duke's lead to 19 at 10:57 and the run came to an end on a pair of Marshall Plumlee free throws with eight minutes remaining.
Plomb again hit consecutive jumpers, at the elbow and then a three, cutting the Duke cushion to 20 a minute later. The closest Army got was 18 on a Mo Williams free throw with two minutes left.
"We have got to do a better job tightening up our defense,” Spiker added. "I don't think we did a very good job in guarding the drive tonight."
Army plays its second straight road game when it travels to Delaware for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday night.
Game Notes: Army played its first ranked opponent in head coach Zach Spiker's tenure ... the loss snaps Army's five-game winning streak ... the last time the Black Knights played a ranked opponent was Dec. 21, 2006, when they fell to No. 20 Notre Dame 88-47 ... the last time Army met a top-five team was Nov. 29, 2005 when it lost to No. 3 Connecticut 68-54 ... the Black Knights have used the same starting lineup in every game this season with Cox, Wilson, Plomb, Larry Toomey and Kevin Ferguson on the floor first ... Kieffer Jordan made his first appearance of the season for the Black Knights and scored two points.
