Healthy Duke shakes off rust, leaves Rebels in dust

Blue Devils’ Allen finally free of injuries, shows his athleticism in rout

There are many reasons Duke was the near-unanimous No. 1 team in the country in the preseason.

On Saturday, UNLV experienced those reasons in a 94-45 demolition at T-Mobile Arena.

The Blue Devils have dropped — just slightly — to No. 5 after being hampered by injuries early in the season. Now, the Blue Devils are on the cusp of being healthy, and it showed against the Rebels.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said that Friday was the first time this season the team had had a full practice. He added it was the first time in five weeks that junior Grayson Allen had practiced as he deals with injuries.

“Today was the first day where he could extend and he was making the athletic plays that he can make that he couldn’t make with being injured, so that was a big plus for us,” Krzyzewski said.

Allen led all scorers with a career-high 34 points on 12-of-16 shooting. He shot 6-of-9 from 3-point range.

A healthy Jayson Tatum chipped in 13 points while Marques Bolden added six. Tatum was the No. 3 player in ESPN’s Top 100, while Bolden was No. 16.

But both have been limited by injuries and each has played in just three games this season.

Harry Giles, ESPN’s top player of the 2016 recruiting class, has yet to make his college debut, but the Blue Devils are expecting him back by the end of the month and he’s expected to make a strong Duke team even more potent.

“Yesterday at practice, they all practiced,” Krzyzewski said. “It was the first practice where we’ve had everybody and the guys have responded really well.”

DUKE, UNLV FANS FILL T-MOBILE

The first college basketball game at T-Mobile Arena was a sellout, thanks in part to Duke fans who came out in droves.

There were approximately 8,000 Blue Devils fans — including noted Duke fan and Las Vegas native Bryce Harper — taking in the first game between the programs in 25 years.

The last time they played, Duke upset UNLV in the NCAA Final Four, a year after the Rebels wiped out Duke in the title game.

The announced crowd of 19,107 Saturday was the largest attendance for a basketball game in Las Vegas since 1991 — a UNLV-UC Santa Barbara game at the Thomas & Mack Center.

INJURED JONES RETURNS Christian Jones returned to UNLV’s lineup on after missing five games with a foot injury.

Before the injury, Jones was averaging 14 points and seven rebounds in three starts.

Jones, who didn’t start in his return, collected five rebounds and went 0-for-4 from the floor in the loss.

“We’ll see how it (foot) feels,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said. “We’ll get it evaluated. I don’t know what the future brings on.”

JETER COMES HOME

Chase Jeter, the Duke sophomore who’s a Bishop Gorman High grad, started Saturday and scored two points while bringing down three rebounds in 15 minutes of play.

“I hope he felt really excited and proud,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s not about a kid coming home. It’s about Duke playing. It’s about us playing, but I’m glad he did come home and I’m glad that he’s with us.”