'It was put up or shut up': No. 6 Illini Dominate in Wire-to-Wire Win at No. 10 Duke
Illinois is still undefeated in program history at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
And don’t think for one moment following this dominating, wire-to-wire 83-68 victory at No. 10 Duke that the big-picture allure of what was accomplished would get lost in the mind of Illinois head coach Brad Underwood.
“I mean, let’s be real, it’s Duke. It’s Cameron Indoor and I get it, the fans weren’t here but it’s still Duke,” Underwood said following the 15-point victory. “I liked our mental approach today. We just came into Cameron Indoor and found a way to win."
Not only did the No. 6 Illini (4-1) win but they served Duke its worst non-conference beating in the 308 such games at home under head coach Mike Krzyzewski. The win Tuesday night, as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, allowed Illinois to become the first and only non-conference team to earn multiple wins inside Duke’s historic home arena.
Illinois junior guard Ayo Dosunmu, a preseason first-team All-America selection, registered 18 points, 12 rebounds and five assists in a 83-68 victory at No. 10 Duke on Dec. 8, 2020.
Photo courtesy of Duke University athletics
Ayo Dosunmu, the preseason first-team All-America selection, proved to be the best player on the floor as he dropped 18 points, 12 rebounds and five assists as he led a vaunted transition game that resulted in 24 fast-break points and a 7-for-11 evening from the three-point arc. Dosunmu’s points, rebounds and assists were all team highs as the junior guard entered Tuesday night as one of only two players in college basketball currently averaging at least 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
“I do believe that I’m the most complete player in the game,” Dosunmu said. “It was put up or shut up. It was one of those games. A lot of talk was with us in the offseason. We just played two great teams and we accepted the challenge.”
Duke (2-2) was seemingly never in this game after the Illini ran out to leads of 14-2 and 17-4 in the game’s early minutes due to the Blue Devils inability to make perimeter shots and get back in defense to handle Illinois’ transition offense. Duke missed its first 12 attempts from three-point range and seemingly only got easy baskets off the 18 turnovers given up by the Illini.
Matthew Hurt, who came in as Duke’s leading scorer, finished with a game-high 19 points but arguably one of the best pick-and-pop forwards in college basketball was 0-for-6 from beyond the three-point arc.
“We just got beat by a team that is better than we are, older, more mature and they imposed their will on us,” Krzyzewski said. “We’re not as good as they are. We’re not there yet. They’re just a good team. They were last year and they are right now. Brad does an excellent job with his team.”
Illinois went with more of a frontcourt combination of Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezhanishvili Tuesday night against a bigger Duke lineup and the Illini duo wreaked havoc on both ends of the floor. Cockburn scored 13 points with eight rebounds while Bezhanishvili finished with 11 points in his first back-to-back double-figure scoring effort since the middle of last season. Illinois had six players in double figures as they shot 58 percent from the field but were also active on the defensive end with seven steals and five blocks.
“When we can get out and run, I think we're as good as anyone in the country,” Underwood said. “I'll take our chances running with anybody. With our guards and ability to shoot it. I loved our start because of getting a stop and being able to push. It’s such a luxury having essentially three point guards out there.”
Illinois’ guards outscored Duke’s guards 59-31 and Dosunmu’s defensive effort on DJ Steward, a former Illini 2020 recruiting target from Chicago, forced the freshman into five turnovers in a frustrating night for the former Whitney Young High School star. The win for the Illini comes less than a week after they were dominated by Baylor’s guard depth and immediately flipped that script on a Duke team that is known for wanting to play a fast paced running game.
“I thought the Baylor loss really helped us,” Underwood said. “I wanted our guys to understand that really bad feeling (after a loss) and I wanted them to understand why we had that feeling. The Baylor game helped us tonight because what Baylor does defensively is the best in the country. We had some familiar, similar concepts going into both games.”
Illinois will next finish its non-conference portion of the 2020-21 schedule with a twist to the Braggin' Rights Game against Missouri (3-0) as it'll be played at Mizzou Arena Saturday night (7 p.m., SEC Network) due to the coronavirus pandemic forcing the contest out of St. Louis for the first time since 1979.
