Duke basketball rebounded from its loss to Kentucky with a resounding effort on the road at Arizona.
In a physical and poised performance, the 12th-ranked Blue Devils stifled the 17th-ranked Wildcats with impressive defense and dominant rebounding to earn a 69-55 win at the McKale Center.
Freshman standouts Cooper Flagg (24 points) and Kon Knueppel (13 points) led Duke (4-1) in scoring against Arizona (2-2) to help the Blue Devils earn their first road win against a top-25 nonconference opponent since 2019 at Michigan State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
Excluding the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the Blue Devils snapped a nearly 24-year drought, winning on another team’s home court in a top-25 nonconference game for the first time since beating No. 17 Temple in 2000.
Duke went on to win the national championship that season, beating Arizona in the 2001 title game. Prior to Friday night, that was the last time the Devils beat the Wildcats.
Here are observations from Duke’s latest win against Arizona.
In the first true road game of his Duke career, freshman Cooper Flagg was the closer at Arizona. Every time the Wildcats attempted to push the Blue Devils in the second half, Flagg responded with a timely bucket, rebound or assist. He scored 16 of his 24 points after halftime, rounding out his impressive stat line with six rebounds and three assists. Knueppel aided that effort with 11 points in the second half. That duo scored 27 of Duke’s 35 second-half points.
Arizona entered Friday’s game leading the nation in offensive rebounds per game at 21.7. The Blue Devils didn’t allow the Wildcats to sniff that number, limiting them to just one offensive board and two second-chance points in the first half. Veteran transfers Maliq Brown and Sion James , along with Knueppel, did most of the dirty work on the defensive glass, combining for 16 defensive boards. Duke was plus-8 in the rebounding margin in the first half — a big reason it had a seven-point lead at halftime. The Blue Devils finished with a 43-30 rebounding advantage.
Tyrese Proctor, the player with the most experience as a Blue Devil, came out firing with a pair of 3-pointers in the opening four minutes. Proctor led Duke with eight points and four assists in the first half. Defensively, the junior guard was tasked with limiting Arizona’s Caleb Love, who didn’t score until late in the first half. Love finished with eight points on 3-of-13 shooting.
Duke won’t be easing into Thanksgiving week. Following their first win against a ranked opponent, the Blue Devils head to Las Vegas for a showdown with No. 1 Kansas (5-0) on Tuesday (9 p.m., ESPN) at T-Mobile Arena. Duke has lost four of its last five games against the Jayhawks.
