Matthew Hurt: "I'm Shooting My Shot"
Matthew Hurt hit 6-of-8 from three and scored a team-high 24 points in Duke’s win over Bellarmine.
“My teammates were finding me,” Hurt said. “They were hitting me in the right position.”
Duke knew that it would be a game where outside shooting was critical.
“We were getting better shots,” Hurt said. “This team packs it in on defense. So one dribble, kick, hit the open guy. That was our game plan coming in.”
Hurt put on 20 pounds of muscle in the offseason, which is helping him as he leads the team in scoring.
“I’m a lot more confident,” he said. “I’m good with the weight I’m playing at right now. I’m trying to be aggressive, play through contact, finish above taller people. I’m shooting my shot, just very confident.”
Bellarmine cut Duke’s 15 points lead to three shortly before the half, but Duke responded with a 7-0 run to lead by 10 at the break.
“The first two games, we started the second half really bad,” Hurt said, “and there were some (bad) stretches in the first half. We were trying to close the first half strong. We didn’t want to have a Michigan State or Coppin State to start the second half again. We wanted to get energy, keep playing defense and getting open looks.”
Next up for Duke will be Illinois in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
“Half our team, that was the third game of their college career,” Hurt said. “The physicality on Tuesday is going to be crazy. They have great players on Illinois. We’re going to stick to our game plan, have solid defense and create for others.”
