Southern Jaguars at Duke Blue Devils

Carter Jr. scores 20, No. 1 Duke beats Southern 78-61

The Blue Devils beat Southern 78-61 on Friday night behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from Wendell Carter Jr.

"We just didn't come ready to play," Carter said. "I can't really speak for everybody, I don't know if everybody was energized or not or if people were hurt or not. Just as a team, we didn't play as a unit. We starters had an opportunity just to be selfish, and that's not the way to go. We've got to take every game seriously, and we did not do that tonight."

Marvin Bagley III added 19 points and 11 rebounds and Grayson Allen and Trevon Duval finished with 10 points apiece for the Blue Devils (4-0).

The Blue Devils finished with a season-high 15 turnovers, shot just 4 of 20 from 3-point range and for a while struggled to keep Southern off the offensive glass before regrouping to finish with a 51-34 rebounding advantage.

"There was something missing tonight," Krzyzewski said.

Gary Trent Jr. had 10 rebounds but was 3-of-11 shooting for Duke, which never led by fewer than 10 points in the second half, but also had trouble putting Southern away, not pushing its lead into the 20s until the final 5 minutes.

They gave the Blue Devils about 15 minutes' worth of serious headaches before Trent hit two 3-pointers during a 15-3 run late in the first half that pushed Duke's lead into double figures to stay.

BIG PICTURE

"We talked about just trying to get better, each and every game, and tonight we fought as a unit and tried to instill in those guys that if we continue to do that, by the time we get to league play ... we can compete" for the Southwestern Athletic Conference title, interim head coach Morris Scott said.

"They thought it would be a lot easier than it was, and that's on us, too, to make sure," Krzyzewski said. "We're all responsible for it. The other thing is, we won. We won. So that's a good thing."

THE EYES HAVE IT

Allen was poked in the left eye when he was fouled by Southern's Chris Thomas with 1:08 left in the half. Allen hit 1 of 2 free throws before heading to the bench for treatment with the eye swelling almost immediately. He was back to start the second half. Three nights earlier, Bagley didn't return after he was poked in the eye during the Michigan State game.

HIGHLIGHT REEL

Southern was still in the game, trailing just 30-27 with about 5 minutes before the break when Sandifer put up a jumper in the lane. Bagley blocked it all the way to midcourt and Allen chased it down, whipped the ball behind his back and converted a left-handed layup that energized what had been a morose Cameron Indoor Stadium.

CAPEL'S RETURN

Associate head coach Jeff Capel was back on the Duke bench. He didn't make the trip to Chicago for the Michigan State game after his father, former Old Dominion coach Jeff Capel Jr., died less than two years after he was diagnosed with ALS. He was honored with a moment of silence before tipoff.

UP NEXT

Southern: The Jaguars stick around Durham to face N.C. Central on Sunday.

Duke: The Blue Devils wrap up their quick home stand Monday night against Furman.

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