DURHAM, N.C. – Duke men’s basketball head coach Jon Scheyer tallied his 100th career victory, becoming the fastest ACC head coach to the century mark, with Duke’s 97-73 win over Lipscomb on Tuesday, Dec. 16. Scheyer reached 100 career wins in just his 122nd game at the helm of the program, surpassing Duke’s Vic Bubas, who held the previous conference record of doing so in 128 games.
After entering halftime with just a three-point advantage, the Blue Devils (11-0) outscored the Bisons, 49-28, in the second frame to secure the 24-point win. Cameron Boozer led the way for Duke with a 26-point, 13-rebound double-double, while Patrick Ngongba II posted his first career double-double, with 10 points and 11 boards.
Three other Blue Devils scored in double-figures, with Isaiah Evans adding 16 and the duo of Maliq Brown and Darren Harris both scoring 11. Brown finished one rebound shy of a double-double, grabbing a season-best nine caroms, and Evans’ effort was fueled by a game-high four three-pointers.
Duke finished with a +34 margin on the glass, out-rebounding Lipscomb, 55-21. The Blue Devils pulled in 20 offensive rebounds and allowed just three offensive boards by the Bisons, finishing with a 26-0 advantage in second-chance points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Duke opened the game with a 10-point scoring run, its 17th kill shot of the season. The Bisons responded with a kill shot of their own, knotting the score at 10-10 with 14:46 on the clock.
The visitors took a double-digit lead, 26-16, with another 10-point burst halfway through the first half, matching the Blue Devils’ largest deficit of the season. Duke scored eight of the next 10 points, narrowing the margin to two possessions, 28-24, highlighted by a dunk from Cameron Boozer on the fast break.
A pair of three-pointers from Darren Harris helped the Blue Devils pull within a point, 42-41, with just over two minutes before halftime. Duke surged at the end of the frame, scoring the final seven points, including a tip-in bucket at the buzzer by Boozer.
Consecutive layups by the visitors to start the second half led to an early Duke timeout, the Blue Devils reeled off eight points over the next two minutes, punctuated by a one-hand slam from Isaiah Evans off a steal.
Duke reeled off another eight-point burst, taking its first double-digit lead, 71-57, after a fast-break layup from Cayden Boozer. Consecutive trifectas from Evans pushed the lead to 15 points, 77-62.
The Blue Devils exploded for 15 unanswered points, pulling away by 28 points with just over two minutes remaining. Dame Sarr scored the final five points of the night for the Blue Devils, with a fast-break layup and a three-pointer, to cap off the 97-73 victory.
NOTES
The victory marked head coach Jon Scheyer’s 100th with the Blue Devils.
Scheyer is the fastest ACC coach to reach 100 victories, doing so in just 122 games.
The previous record holder was Vic Bubas, who reached the milestone in 128 games with Duke in 1964.
Nationally, Scheyer is the second-fastest NCAA Division I men’s basketball head coach to reach the century mark in wins in the past 45 years.
He only trails Brad Stevens during that time frame, who earned his 100th win in his 120th game at Butler in 2011.
Duke’s 11-0 start is the best open to a season under Scheyer.
The 11 wins are the most to begin a season since the 2017-18 squad also started the campaign with 11 consecutive victories.
The Blue Devils are tied for second-longest active win streak in the country, trailing only Nebraska (15).
Dating back to last season, Duke has won 23 consecutive games at home.
The Blue Devils are now 54-3 (.947) at Cameron Indoor Stadium in four seasons under Scheyer.
Duke has won 36 straight against unranked non-conference foes at home.
Tuesday was the first meeting between the two teams.
Lipscomb marked the fourth consecutive, and sixth total, non-conference opponent that reached the NCAA Tournament last season.
The Bisons won the Atlantic Sun regular season and tournament championships in 2024-25.
The Blue Devils snapped Lipscomb’s five-game winning streak.
Duke is 17-1 when playing on Dec. 16.
The Blue Devils have won six consecutive games on this date, with their lone setback coming at No. 3 Vanderbilt in 1967.
The Blue Devils entered the game leading the nation in field goal percentage defense (.341), ranked third in scoring margin (+27.2) and ranked fourth in scoring defense (59.6).
Duke held Lipscomb to 39.3% shooting from the field.
Duke has held nine of its opponents under 40% shooting from the field.
Lipscomb entered the contest averaging 80.4 points per game, but were limited to 73 points.
The Blue Devils have held each opponent this season under their respective scoring average.
Duke out-rebounded Lipscomb, 55-21, for a dominant rebound margin of +34.
The Blue Devils have finished with an advantage on the glass in nine games this season.
Duke also achieved a 20-3 advantage on the offensive glass, resulting in a 26-0 cushion in second-chance points.
The Blue Devils accumulated a season-high 14 steals on Tuesday, bettering their prior best of 13 steals against Indiana State.
Duke finished with an advantage in four of the specialty stats, leading in second-chance points (26-0), points in the paint (56-30), fast break points (24-21) and bench points (37-14).
Duke dished 21 assists in the win over Lipscomb, its sixth game this season with at least 20 dimes.
Cameron Boozer amassed 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and a perfect 6-of-6 performance from the free-throw line, while adding 13 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season.
Boozer’s 26 points and 13 boards also represent his third 20-point double-double of his freshman campaign
His six double-doubles are tied for sixth among Division I national leaders.
Isaiah Evans connected on 4-of-7 from behind the arc as part of his 16-point performance on Tuesday.
Evans has now tallied at least three 3-pointers six times this season and 17 times in his two-year Duke career.
The Blue Devils are now 17-0 in Evans’ two seasons when he drains at least three triples in a contest.
Patrick Ngongba II registered his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-best 11 rebounds.
The 6-11 sophomore center added two blocked shots, two steals and an assist, while shooting 5-of-9 from the field.
Maliq Brown finished one rebound shy of his first Duke double-double, tallying season highs of 11 points and nine boards.
Darren Harris sparked the Blue Devils with 11 points, including a pair of triples, along with two steals and two assists.
Cayden Boozer distributed a team-high four assists, while contributing nine points, two rebounds and two steals – all in the second half.
Caleb Foster grabbed six rebounds to match his career-high, while also adding eight points.
QUOTES
“Hats off to Lipscomb and Coach [Kevin] Carroll. Watching them on film, I was very concerned that what happened could happen. They run great stuff. He’s a really good coach. He’s done a great job with a new team, with some turnover. I thought the actions they ran against our switching were great. I thought the physicality they played with, the defense, I can’t say enough about them. And for us, I thought that was a great experience for us. That was a different team than we’ve played because of their shooting, and so we had to do some things differently on the defensive end. Obviously, the two biggest areas were the turnovers and the fouls. In those two areas, we’ve got to clean up very quickly going into Saturday. But I thought it was a great response. Darren Harris came in, played some big minutes. The shots that he made – yeah, that was great. We needed them at that time. But it was also just his energy down on the floor for loose balls. Cayden [Boozer], I thought his response in the second half [was good]. And this is an example, again, of how we need everybody ready to go. We got a little banged up, and I think we’re okay, but I’m just proud of the guys, proud of the response.” – Duke head coach Jon Scheyer
“I remember the first time walking out against Jacksonville as a head coach, and the pressure, the nerves you feel at times. And I don’t take any game for granted. And I think there’s two things I’d like to say. One, I think you feel, as a head coach, you have great humility, understanding that you can’t score one point or get one stop by yourself. And the thing that I’ve had is an incredibly strong support staff, starting with my family, my friends, just people around Duke, our administration, Nina [King] supporting. And then our coaching staff. [Chris Carrawell] has been there for every one of them. We’ve been through a lot together. The coaches on the staff, Emanuel [Dildy], coming over, Rachel [Baker], you name it. I think that’s something that you feel. And then your players. I got advice right away when I found out I was going to be the next coach – you can worry about a lot of different things, but you better get some good players. And we’ve had the best players. We’ve had great players, and we have to continue to do that. But it’s really not about me, not about that. I think it’s about who you have with you. And the second thing, you’ve got to fight, scrap and claw for every win. I knew this could happen. And 100, it’s cool. We played Tom Izzo last week, and Coach Izzo, he’s got 700 something wins. That’s a lot of wins. You got a guy standing on the baseline, [Coach Mike Krzyzewski], he’s got 1,200 something wins. That’s crazy. And so again, for me, I’m just really proud of who I have with me, our staff, our players, and I’m really grateful.” – Scheyer on becoming the fastest coach to 100 wins in ACC history
“We definitely had a rough game, turned the ball over, things like that, especially for me. But you’ve got to give props to Lipscomb, too. They’re a team that has a great chance to make the [NCAA] Tournament later on. Coach [Jon Scheyer] said it going in, this is a tournament game – don’t sleep on Lipscomb. You’ve got to give a lot of props to them. We’ve got to be better, for sure, but they’re a great team.” – Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer
“I just think we didn’t come in with the right mindset, our energy. [Lipscomb] took advantage of that. They came in with their energy, they came to play, and they hit us first, and we just had to respond. We just weren’t taking care of the ball in the first half. We were giving them transition and then we put them on the [free throw] line a lot. I think that’s what really made the difference.” – Duke sophomore guard/forward Isaiah Evans
UP NEXT
No. 3 Duke (11-0) returns to Madison Square Garden in New York City for a top-20 clash against No. 19 Texas Tech (8-3).
The Blue Devils and Red Raiders tip off at 8 p.m., on ESPN.
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