Cameron Boozer poured in 25 points as No. 6 Duke rolled in its home opener for a 95-54 victory against Western Carolina on Saturday afternoon in Durham, N.C.
Twin brother Cayden Boozer came off the bench for 14 points, while Patrick Ngongba II and reserve Maliq Brown both scored 10 points for the Blue Devils (2-0), who won their 44th consecutive home opener.
Cameron Boozer, a heralded freshman, shot 8-for-15 from the field with four 3-point baskets and also pulled in eight rebounds and shared team-high honors with his brother with five assists.
Julien Soumaoro’s 14 points led Western Carolina (0-2), which committed 14 turnovers and shot 4-for-26 on 3-point attempts. Marcus Kell had 11 points and Abdulai Fanta Kabba added 10.
Even though Duke had stretches of subpar shooting, the Blue Devils ended up 46.9% from the field.
Duke, playing in its only home game among the first three games on its schedule, led 45-21 at halftime despite shooting 3-for-17 from 3-point range, with its starters a combined 1-for-11 from deep. The Blue Devils took more than half of their shots from behind the 3-point arc in the half.
Courtesy of a 17-0 run, Duke was up 23-6 less than 10 minutes into the game. Cameron Boozer, who didn’t score in the first half of Tuesday night’s opener vs. Texas, had eight of those points on his way to 14 points prior to halftime.
The Catamounts missed 18 of their first 20 shots. They had a scoring drought of almost seven minutes.
Duke added a 12-0 run before the midway mark of the second half.
Western Carolina lost by 50 points to Duke 29 years ago in the previous meeting between the teams and the margin was headed that way again until the final few minutes. The Blue Devils scored only seven points in the final 3:20.
–Field Level Media
