NCAA Tournament: Duke Beats UNC-Wilmington in first round

Duke advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after three players scored over 20 points.

It certainly wasn’t easy, but the Duke Blue Devils hung around just enough to defeat the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

In the first game of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament, besides the First Four games, Duke edged UNC-Wilmington in a close one in Providence, 93-85.

Duke, the defending national champions, came in as a 4-seed, but struggled for quite some time against the 13-seed Seahawks from the same state as the Blue Devils. In fact, the Seahawks and the Blue Devils are within just 150 miles of each other.

UNCW was actually up three at the half, thanks in large part to guard Chris Flemmings, who seemed to never miss in the first 20 minutes of the game.

The Seahawks went into the break up 43-40 but the lead didn’t last long. Duke came out energized in the second half, and didn’t look back from there.

The Blue Devils used a hot-shooting second half to knock off the Seahawks, although it wasn’t easy. Coach K’s team shot 70 percent from the field in the second half, and benefited from a lot of free throws, thanks to the Seahawks getting into the bonus early on in the final half of basketball.

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UNC-Wilmington committed 33 fouls in this one, and Duke benefited largely from the Seahawks foul trouble. The Blue Devils shot 72 percent from the line, which isn’t outstanding, but made 31 of 43 attempts, including a ton of free throws down the stretch to maintain that lead.

The Seahawks just wouldn’t quit, however.

Craig Ponder finished the game 8-of-14 from the field with 22 points, but fouled out. Flemmings was a big spark for the Seahawks as well, finishing with 18 on 7-of-16 shooting. Denzel Ingram poured in 17 and C.J. Bryce chipped in 16 points as the Seahawks fought, clawed, and hung around until the final minute and a half.

The x-factor for Duke; Marshall Plumlee. The fifth-year senior Plumlee absolutely dominated in the second half, with dunk, after dunk, after dunk, put-back after put-back, as UNC-Wilmington had no answer for the 7-foot center.

The Seahawks tallest player was 7-footer C.J. Gettys, who fouled out early on in this one, and from that point on had no big body to handle Plumlee down low.

Plumlee finished with a career-high 23 points on a 9-of-10 clip to go with his eight boards and three blocked shots before fouling out with just a few minutes left in the game.

Grayson Allen also scored 23 points, on 4-of-12 shooting, but added 10 rebounds and five assists. Allen shot a remarkable 15-of-17 from the free throw line, as he himself shot almost as many free throws as the Seahawks did the entire game. UNC-Wilmington finished 14-of-19 from the charity stripe.

Freshman sensation, and top-prospect Brandon Ingram had himself a great game, adding 20 points on 7-of-12 from the field to go with nine boards and three dimes.

Duke has used a six or seven man rotation for much of the year, and after Matt Jones and Plumlee fouled out in the second half, Coach K had almost no choice but to use the remaining five players.

Early on, Duke had trouble hanging with the Seahawks style of run and gun, but Duke adjusted and responded well by scoring 90 points or more for the first time in an NCAA Tournament game since 2004.

For UNC-Wilmington, they have nothing to hang their heads about. They fought hard and long, pushing Duke to the edge a few times, but just couldn’t stay out of foul trouble in the end.

For Duke, they live to fight another day as they aim to win back-to-back championships for the first time since Florida in the Joakim Noah days, when the Gators won in both 2006 and 2007.

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Duke will take on the winner of Yale and Baylor, who started just shortly after the conclusion of the Blue Devils victory.

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