No. 9 Duke welcomes La Salle to Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night for their second game of the Blue Devil Challenge — an MTE that includes Bucknell along with La Salle and Southern Indiana.
Duke and La Salle meet in the Blue Devils’ second game of the Blue Devil Challenge, after opening the event with a 90-60 win versus Bucknell last Friday. The Explorers are 2-0 in the Blue Devil Challenge, defeating the Bison, 69-57, on Nov. 14 and then taking down Southern Indiana, 79-78, on Nov. 18 before traveling to Durham.
Duke is 4-0 all-time against La Salle. Tuesday is the first meeting between the two teams in 40 years, having last played on Jan. 8, 1983 — The Blue Devils defeated the Explorers, 61-60, in that game, which was played at The Palestra.
La Salle Explorers
La Salle steps into Cameron Indoor Stadium with an unblemished record of 4-0 on the season. Khalil Brantley leads the Explorers so far this season with 17.5 points per contest, the junior guard also averages 3.8 assists per game good for second on the team. La Salle starts 3 other guards who all average in double figures with Jhamir Brickus adding 14.3 per game with 4.3 assists and Daeshon Shepherd adds a team high 6 rebounds from the guard spot to go with his 12.5 points per game. Rounding out the double-figure scorers for the Explorers is Anwar Gill who leads the team in assists at 5 per game and scores at an 11 point per game clip.
For La Salle Duke will be their first road test of the season on Tuesday evening, when it travels to No. 9 Duke for the final game of the Blue Devil Classic. The Explorers improved to 4-0 for the first time since the 2014-15 season with a 79-78 victory over Southern Indiana on Saturday. Junior Khalil Brantley was the focal point of the offense, scoring a career-high 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting. Brantley scored 22 of his 30 after halftime, and added five rebounds to help La Salle overcome a five-point deficit at intermission.
In addition to Brantley’s big afternoon against Southern Indiana, junior Daeshon Shepherd also had a standout performance, scoring 18 points and grabbing a team-high eight rebounds. Shepherd knocked down a career-high three three-point field goals and has averaged 20.0 points per game over his last two outings, shooting 65.2 percent from the floor.
The victory also puts head coach Fran Dunphy on the verge of a career milestone, as he enters Tuesday’s game with 599 career wins in his 32nd season as a head coach. Dunphy amassed 310 victories as head coach at Penn from 1989-2006, and 270 more while at the helm of Temple from 2006-19. Now in his second season as head coach at his alma mater La Salle (1970 graduate), Dunphy earned Philadelphia Big 5 Coach of the Year accolades after leading the Explorers to 15 wins last season.
Duke Blue Devils
The Blue Devils roll into Tuesday at 3-1 on the season. Duke returns 60.4 points per game from last year’s roster, the most by a Duke team since the 2008-09 season, and brings back 77.9% of points scored in 2022-23 — the most since the 2007-08 Duke team returned 81.3%. Each of the Blue Devils’ top-four scorers from a year ago are on the 2023-24 roster, which is the first time since at least 1997 — as far back as research allows — according to ESPN.
After 4 games sophomore Kyle Filipowsi leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 18.8 per game – he also leads Duke in rebounding pulling down 7.3 per game. Sophomore Mark Mitchell is scoring at a 14 point per game clip, pulling down 5 rebounds per game and shooting 93% from the free throw line. Senior Captain Jeremy Roach is averaging just under 12 points per game (11.8) on the year so far. Freshman Caleb Foster and Sophomore Tyrese Proctor are both averaging 10.5 points per game so far with Proctor averaging 5.8 assists per game to lead the team.
In Duke’s first game of the Blue Devil Challenge, Jared McCain logged the team’s first double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds — including nine on the defensive glass. Mark Mitchell tallied a career-high 20 points to pace the Blue Devils against the Bison, going 8-of-13 from the field and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line.
Thoughts
La Salle provides a step up in competition from Bucknell and are the type of team the Blue Devils could face in an early round NCAAT game. La Salle is riding high at 4-0 and provide another challenge for Duke with a lot of older players in their starting lineup. The mission for the Blue Devils shouldn’t change – continue to build offensive chemistry – especially among the guards and also continue to improve ball movement. It’s not yet a thing of beauty but seems to be incrementally improving.
As a team the Blue Devils have yet to find their shooting stroke – while they did shoot it fairly well against Bucknell they have been inconsistent. Getting their open 3’s to all would do wonders for confidence. I’d like to see more aggression from sophomore Mark Mitchell who has had some good games but still could be more assertive on the offensive end.
Defensively, Duke hasn’t been bad but they have had a habit of not staying with shooters on the scouting report and have had some miscommunications leading to open shots that just haven’t fallen for their opponents. There are still some things to clean up on that end in terms of perimeter defense that they can work out Tuesday night in advance of a date with Arkansas.
