Blue Devils keep foot on gas
Trojans’ dance party ends fast
GREENVILLE, S.C. Grayson Allen has embraced his role as Duke’s sixth man over the past three weeks.
“It just to give the team that extra boost,” he said.
“And score points,” Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski interjected.
Allen did both to keep second-seeded Duke’s postseason perfect in an 87-65 victory over Troy in the NCAA Tournament on Friday night in the East Regional.
Allen had 21 points off five of Duke’s 13 threepointers and Jayson Tatum added 18 points and 12 rebounds.
“I’m coming in with fresh legs off the bench,” Allen said. “I’m coming in to explode really.”
Shrugging off the chorus of bad-boy boos each time he touched the ball, Allen helped the Blue Devils (29-7) improve to 34-7 all-time in opening NCAA games.
They’ll face No. 7 seed South Carolina, which beat No. 10 seed Marquette. That outcome prevented a matchup Sunday between Krzyzewski and Marquette’s Steve Wojciechowski, a former Duke point guard and assistant.
Jordon Varnado had 18 points to lead Troy, which made its first NCAA appearance since 2003. Varnado said the players came out sluggish and could not fight their way out of it. “We’ve got to use this motivation and fire we had before the game to come back hard” next year, the sophomore said.
Duke, which averaged 8 three-pointers a game this season, hit 10 in the opening half to quickly pull away from the Trojans. Tatum opened the game with a three. A short time later, Frank Jackson, Luke Kennard and Matt Jones had long-range baskets on consecutive possessions as the Blue Devils jumped to a 16-4 lead less than 5 minutes in.
The lead shrunk to nine points in the second half, the final time at 5950 on Wesley Person Jr.’s basket with 14:32 to go. But Jones and Allen followed with three-pointers and the Trojans (2215) could not rally.
Duke finished with 13 three-pointers, its highest total in nine games since hitting the same amount in a win over Wake Forest on Feb. 18.
Jones finished with 14 points off 3 three-pointers and Jackson 12 with 2 threes. The Blue Devils’ outside touch offset the poor performance of leading scorer Kennard, who was just 3 for 12 shooting for eight points.