Shamari Spears stepped up to the foul line in Cameron Indoor Stadium and drained two free throws, tying the score. Unfortunately for Charlotte, the score was 2-2, and that’s as close as they would ever get Tuesday night.
Duke’s Nolan Smith scored a career-high 24 points, Jon Scheyer added 20 more and No. 8 Duke routed Charlotte 101-59 on Tuesday night in the second round of the NIT Season Tip-Off. Kyle Singler finished with 17 points for Duke (3-0), who never trailed, shot 52.9 percent from the field and made 12 three-pointers in advancing to next week’s semifinal round at Madison Square Garden.
“Obviously Duke was very impressive tonight, we’re not really happy with the way we played,” 49ers head coach Bobby Lutz said following the 101-59 drubbing. “They really imposed their will on us tonight from the start.”
Spears scored 20 points to lead the undermanned 49ers (2-1), who failed to win a second-consecutive game against a Top 25 opponent dating back to last season’s win over 17th-ranked Xavier. Marred by 12 first-half turnovers and poor shooting from the field, the 49ers were never a threat to Duke and didn’t record their first field goal until RaShad Coleman made the score 14-4 with 16:38 remaining in the first half. At times, the 49ers’ offense looked like a one-man show. Spears, a transfer from Boston College who is no stranger to Cameron Indoor and the Crazies, recorded his second straight 20-point performance. However, none of Charlotte’s other players recorded more than six points
The 49ers had been expected to put up a fight against the Blue devils, who were without forward Mason Plumlee due to a broken left wrist and Smith’s suspension for playing in a non-sanctioned summer league in the first two games of the season.
With Smith returning on Tuesday night, the Blue Devils didn’t miss a beat; recording their 71st consecutive non-conference win at home and 31st straight home win against unranked opponents. Duke, the three-time champions of the preseason NIT, improved to 20-2 all-time in the event.
“We were really worried about their physical play on both ends and the question was could we be tough enough,” Lutz said. “They took us out of what we were trying to do. Give them credit, it was a great performance.”
Duke’s top three scorers, Smith, Schyer and Singler combined for 61 points, two more than Charlotte’s entire team output. Charlotte shot just 23.8 percent from behind the arc and was outrebounded 45-32 by the Blue Devils, who have won their first three games by an average of more than 30 points.
“Hopefully, this is the low point of the season. At some point, you start building for the next game,” Lutz said. “In the second half, we tried to play some different people and tried to experiment and see. We’re going to continue to work hard and look forward to the next game. But tonight was obviously a ver disappointing night for us.”
The 49ers will now have a substantial period of time to regroup from the “Debacle in Durham” as they won’t play again until Monday against a team to be determined. Charlotte’s non-conference schedule won’t get any easier from here as they must travel on the road to play Louisville and Tennessee and will play a home game against 20th-ranked Georgia Tech of the ACC on Jan. 2.
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