Eastern Michigan University’s poor shooting contributed to its 82-59 loss against the No. 9-ranked Duke University Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C., on Saturday.
EMU (7-4) went 21-of-56 (37.5 percent) from the field and 4-for-18 from long range.
Duke (10-2) outrebounded EMU 47-32 and shot 40 percent from the field against EMU’s matchup zone.
“They played the zone the whole time and are real wide,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said in the postgame press conference on GoDuke.com. “With a day of preparation, I felt my guys did a good job (dealing with EMU’s zone).”
“It was just our 2-3 zone, some of the philosophies that I brought from Syracuse and took to Eastern Michigan with me,” EMU head coach Rob Murphy said. “Just where we have our length and our forwards come up, our guards make an effort to keep the ball out of the high post.”
For the second straight game, Mike Talley led EMU in scoring with 20.
Karrington Ward struggled to find his shot as he finished with 11 points on 3-of-9 from the field and went 4-for-8 at the foul line.
Duke freshman phenom Jabari Parker led all scorers with 23 and grabbed nine rebounds.
Andre Dawkins, who started in place of Rodney Hood (illness), added 20 points with a season-high six 3-pointers.
EMU began the scoring on Talley’s three-point play at the 19:35 mark.
For the first 14 minutes, the scoring went back and forth until Duke went on an 8-0 run to move the lead to double digits at 32-21.
The Eagles went into the locker room down 37-27 to the Blue Devils.
Duke pulled away in the second half and cruised to a 23-point win.
Game Notes:
J.R. Sims was assessed a flagrant foul at the 13:12 mark in the second half.
For the fourth time in the last five games, Raven Lee was held to single digits as he scored eight.
Attendance: 9314
Looking Ahead:
On Dec. 31, the Eagles travel to Syracuse, N.Y., to take on the No. 2-ranked Syracuse University Orange at the Carrier Dome.
“I’m looking forward to our next game at Syracuse, which is going to be tough,” Murphy said. “But we’re going to have to find a way to keep getting better, rebound the ball better. This will be third time in as many seasons the two teams will meet.”
EMU fell to Syracuse 84-48 on Dec. 3, 2012 at the Carrier Dome. Glenn Bryant posted a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
Syracuse (12-0) is coming off a 78-62 home victory over No. 8-ranked Villanova University on Saturday.
For the second straight game, redshirt sophomore guard Trevor Cooney led the Orange with 21 points and went 5-for-8 from 3-point range.
Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. and can be seen on ESPNU. Chad Bush will have the call on WEMU 89.1 FM.
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