Duke Blue Devils roll over Arizona Wildcats 69-55 despite spirited crowd at McKale Center

They had everything, except, that is, offense. Or rebounding. And enough defense to make up for those shortfalls.

In a 69-55 loss to Duke on Friday, the Wildcats shot just 39.6% from the field, hit only 6 of 23 3-pointers, made it to the free throw line just 11 times – and were outrebounded 43-30.

Their 55 points tied the lowest they have ever scored under fourth-year coach Tommy Lloyd, equaling their output in a humbling 59-55 loss to Princeton in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

"Great atmosphere," Lloyd said. "Unfortunately, we didn't play the way we'd hoped to play. A lot of credit goes to Duke. They played a great game. It was an honor to play them here, and I wish it would have went a little better for us, but that's how it goes sometimes."

Basically, Duke was just better across the board.

Freshman phenom Cooper Flagg led Duke with 24 points on 10-for-22 shooting while Kon Knueppel added 11 points and seven rebounds. The Blue Devils shot only 42.6% but hit 9 of 25 3-pointers (36%) and scored 14 second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.

"The environment and atmosphere was top-notch," Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. "It was just a big-time college basketball crowd, but at the end of the day, the crowd doesn't control how you defend, how you sprint back on defense, how you take care of the ball."

While 12th-ranked Duke improved to 4-1, No. 17 Arizona dropped to 2-2 entering the Battle 4 Atlantis next week in the Bahamas. The Wildcats' loss also completed an unusual home-and-home series in which each team won on the other’s homecourt, after the Wildcats beat the Blue Devils 78-73 at Durham, N.C. early last season.

Combined with their 103-88 loss at Wisconsin on Nov. 15, it was the first time the Wildcats have lost back-to-back games in three-plus seasons under Lloyd, breaking that streak of 11 games. Arizona is now a combined 90-22 under Lloyd, always having previously followed a loss by at least one win.

Also, before the Wisconsin game, the Wildcats hadn't even lost a single game under Lloyd in November.

"I'm humble enough to know that it's not always going to go easy, and I've always just felt that the harder things you get, the better, because I think I'm built for it," Lloyd said. "I'm going to hang with my team."

The Wildcats had only two double-digit scorers, with Jaden Bradley scoring 18 points and KJ Lewis adding 12, while preseason all-American Caleb Love had eight points but made just 1 of 9 3-pointers.

Scheyer credited Love's problems in part to the defense of Duke's Tyrese Proctor, an Aussie guard who was once a UA recruiting target.

"Love's a big-time player but Tyrese is as good of a defender on the perimeter... he's just a pest," Scheyer said. "He's so disciplined with what he does."

Meanwhile, the Wildcats received little from their post players, getting six points combined from power forwards Trey Townsend and Henri Veesaar along with less-than-expected production out of a lineup swap in which Motiejus Krivas started at center for the first time this season over Tobe Awaka.

Krivas was limited because of a preseason foot injury but had been logging more and more minutes in the Wildcats' first three games, and the matchup with Duke freshman 7-footer Khaman Maluach appeared a reasonable one to put the 7-2 Krivas into.

But Krivas wound up with just five points and four rebounds while Awaka, who had been averaging a double-double while starting at center over UA's first three games, was scoreless with three rebounds.

"I probably didn't do Tobe a good service today," Lloyd said. "I told him before the game that I was thinking about doing this, and he was so agreeable because he's such a great dude. He's been playing well, and so maybe it wasn't the night to do it."

Down by up to 13 points early in the second half, the Wildcats tried to rally midway through the half when Love hit his first 3-pointer with 10:52 left to cut it to 46-38. Love had hit just 1 of 6 shots before that, and none of his first four 3s.

Flagg and Lewis traded 3s around the eight minute mark, after which Duke still carried a 53-46 lead. But two 3-pointers from Knueppel helped the Blue Devils build it back to a 61-48 lead with 3:56 to go, after which some McKale fans started heading for the exits.

"We've been watching Kon do that since the start of the summer," Flagg said. "He's a big time player, big time scorer. We have a lot of confidence in him and what he can do."

Both Lewis and Bradley suffered cramps in the second half but missed little time and were by far the Wildcats' most productive players. Lewis said they could have been more efficient as a team offensively if they did a better job of moving the ball, and Lloyd agreed.

"They did a good job pressuring our bigs, and making our wing touches a little bit harder," Lloyd said. "We've always been a program that's been pretty good in transition. We've got to get in transition a little bit more, and then when we get opportunities, we've got to cash in on them."

Lloyd blamed himself for not yet figuring out what combinations work best but also said his players' decision-making wasn't "where I would hope it would be."

In the first half, Duke shook off the McKale fans and some early struggles, outrebounding Arizona 20-14 in the half and scoring 12 points off nine UA turnovers to take its seven-point halftime lead.

The Blue Devils were roundly booed upon entering the arena for warmups, while fans stood up for much of the first half.

Not surprisingly, the game was initially tense and played within two possessions for nearly all of the first half.

Bradley hit a 3-pointer on Arizona’s first possession and the Wildcats built a quick 7-2 lead. But Duke was ahead 15-12 lead through the first eight minutes and took a seven-point lead into the half after Sion James drove in for a layup with 43 seconds left before halftime.

"That was the biggest thing I told these guys, especially early, `they're going to come out and punch us, try to punch us straight away," Proctor said. "I thought we handled that really well."