Duke’s variety of competition has been vast through the first three weeks of the season, but the No. 5 Blue Devils (6-0) have been consistent in their results.
They wrap up a two-game homestand with Sunday’s matchup against Howard serving as the final game of the inaugural Brotherhood Run in Durham, N.C.
The Blue Devils, fresh off topping Kansas in Tuesday night’s Champions Classic at Madison Square Garden, dismantled Niagara 100-42 on Friday night with sophomore center Patrick Ngongba II’s career-high 17 points leading the way.
“I was just trying to attack the glass and protect the paint,” Ngongba said. “I feel like I was just attacking the offensive glass, and I was able to get some easy free throws.”
Ngongba’s point production was encouraging for the Blue Devils.
“I love the fact he was ready to shoot,” said coach Jon Scheyer. “We’ve been on him about that.”
The Blue Devils had a huge perimeter presence as well, with four players hitting at least three 3-point shots. That hadn’t happened for Duke since a February 2014 overtime game at Syracuse.
“We work so hard each and every day, so to see the first one go in feels good,” said guard Caleb Foster of the 3-point shooting.
Howard (3-3) will have its second tip-off in a 24-hour period following Saturday’s 80-70 victory against Niagara at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Bison rallied from 13 points down to win that game.
Kenny Blakeney, a member of Duke’s Class of 1995, is Howard’s head coach. Former Duke standout Nate James is on Howard’s coaching staff.
It’s special to be back for the visiting coaches.
“Each of us, in our own way, came through Durham — molded not just by victories or banners, but by the deeper lessons that (former coach) Mike Krzyzewski imparted,” Blakeney said.
Howard has been led in scoring in every game by Bryce Harris (22.0 ppg), who’s also the reigning Defensive Player of the Week in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Duke will be in its fourth home game Sunday. A repeat of the performance against Niagara likely would gain Scheyer’s approval.
“Sometimes when you get a lead, that can be the easiest time to try to hunt shots and I thought we didn’t do that at all,” Scheyer said. “It says a lot about our team.”
So the game against Howard might be another chance for the Blue Devils to experiment with lineup combinations. They used 6-foot-8 freshman wing Nikolas Khamenia at point guard for stretches of the Niagara game.
“The thing we loved about Nik in high school was his competitiveness and his passing,” Scheyer said. “He’s really a guy that can play four different positions.”
Duke also will continue to put an emphasis on sequences early in games. That was a talking point prior to the Niagara game and there was progress, with Duke holding a 26-8 lead at the first half’s midpoint.
“I prefer not to have to respond after giving up five or six layups to start every game,” Scheyer said. “So, for us, that was a big point of emphasis. We didn’t want that starting group to pace.”
The Blue Devils want to avoid any steps in the wrong direction, so that will be part of the focus for the game with Howard.
“I feel like we’re doing a pretty good job,” Ngongba said. “We’ve still got to clean up some stuff on defense, but I feel like we’re at a pretty good point in the season so far.”
