Duke not ‘ready to play’ in victory
No. 1-ranked Duke proved thisweek it’s talented enough to beat the best team on its schedule — but not so dominantthat it can take one of the worst for granted. The Blue Devilsbeat visiting Southern, 78-61, Friday night behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from WendellCarter Jr.
“Wejust didn’t come ready to play,” Carter said. “I can’t really speak for everybody, I don’t know if everybody was energized or not or if people were hurt or not. Just as a team, we didn’t play as a unit. We starters had an opportunity just to be selfish, and that’s not the way to go. We’ve got to take every game seriously, and we did not do thattonight.”
Marvin Bagley III added 19 points and 11 rebounds and Grayson Allen and Trevon Duval finished with 10 points apiece for the Blue Devils (40).
Coming off a victory against No. 2 Michigan State three nights earlier, Duke showed several classic symptoms of a letdown — in part, coach Mike Krzyzewski explained, because the Blue Devils didn’t practice the previous two days due to NCAA time-managementrules.
The Blue Devils finished with a season-high 15 turnovers, shot just 4 of 20 from 3point range and for a while struggledto keep Southern (04) off the offensive glass before regrouping to finish with a 51-34 rebounding advantage.
“There was something missing tonight,” Krzyzewski said.
Penn State
Shep Garner didn’t find the clear plastic mask fastened to his face Friday to be too constricting.
Garner, who suffered a broken nose in Penn State’s win Wednesday against Montana, scored 18 of his 26 points in the first half to lead Penn State (4-0) to a 7965 win against visiting Columbia (1-2).
Villanova
Mikal Bridges set a school record by hitting all six of his 3-point shots and scored a career-high 24 points in No. 5 Villanova’s 104-57 rout of Lafayette in Allentown, Pa.
Baylor women
Baylor coach Kim Mulkey didn’t travel Friday with the No. 3 Lady Bears for their game at No. 8 UCLA after her daughter lost her unborn girl.
Makenzie Fuller, a former Lady Bears player in her third season on her mother’s staff, had shared on social media last weekend that the baby was dealing with two life-threatening birth defects.
When Fuller went to a doctor’s appointment Thursday, the baby had no heartbeat, said Jil Price, the athletics communications associate director for the team. Fuller, who was about 18 weeks pregnant, delivered the baby early Friday after labor was induced.
Associate head coach Bill Brock, who will coach the team Saturday, said Mulkey stayed home to be with her daughter and son-in-law, former Baylor football player Clay Fuller.
Connecticut women
Geno Auriemma has put together a tough schedule for his Huskies for the next week. They might be without Katie Lou Samuelson for those games.
Samuelson injured her left foot in the second quarter of No. 1 Connecticut 8247 win against visiting 20thranked California.
“According to Janelle [the trainer], it’s something called a mid-foot sprain, whatever that is,” Auriemma said. “We’ll find out more tomorrow. Do some treatment on her, get some X-rays, make sure nothing’s broken in there.”