Tre Jones: "Keep Applying Pressure. Make Them Play Our Way.”

Duke sophomore point guard Tre Jones scored 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting in the win over Colorado State to open the Blue Devils’ home season. He added five rebounds and eight assists, with just one turnover as Duke rolled, 89-55.

Jones said the key to the game was on the other side of the floor. Duke held the Rams to 32.7 percent shooting and forced 18 turnovers, which led to 26 points for Duke and bothered Colorado State all night with pressure defense.

“We were coming out, trying to pick up where we left off defensively,” he said. “Keep applying that pressure. Keep trying to make them play our way.”

Colorado State was led by forward Nico Carvacho, who averaged 16.1 points and 12.9 rebounds last year on .595 shooting. Duke held him to 3-of-7 shooting, 11 points and nine boards.

“Just watching film, we knew they would want to slow it down a little bit and play through their big man who’s a senior,” Jones said. “We knew we had to keep pushing it, trying to wear them down, getting them playing faster and getting them playing against defensive pressure they hadn’t really seen yet.”

Jones said the offense still needs work for Duke.

“We’re still learning a lot of things about ourselves. It’s still early on in the year,” he said. “We’re really focused on defense right now, mentally, to ease the offense. We’re still figuring out the offense, bit by bit. We’ll keep learning, keep watching film with the coaches.”

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