No. 9 Duke Pulls Away from Bison at Blue Devil Challenge

DURHAM, N.C. – Led by the hot-shooting tandem of Jack Forrest and Ruot Bijiek, the Bucknell men's basketball team was locked up in a four-point game with No. 9 Duke late in the first half, but the Blue Devils bridged the halftime break with a 22-4 run to propel them to a 90-60 victory on Friday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Forrest, who was coming off a career-high 27-point game at La Salle, finished with 17 points, Bijiek added a season-high 11, and Josh Bascoe dished out eight assists while making his first start of the season in place of injured point guard Elvin Edmonds IV.

Mark Mitchell scored a career-high 20 points for the Blue Devils (3-1), who were coming off a win over No. 18 Michigan State in Chicago. Jared McCain (17), Tyrese Proctor (13), and Kyle Filipowski (10) also hit double figures for a Duke team that shot 49.2 percent for the game and hit 13 of 34 from 3-point range.

Bucknell played well for extended periods, but Duke answered every run with big spurts of its own.

"We have a lot of positives to take with us back to Lewisburg," said head coach John Griffin III, who was a sophomore the last time these two teams met back in 2005-06. "I thought we were able to execute offensively reasonably well for most of the night. We have played a lot of basketball early in the season, and I thought we wore down a little bit in the second half and missed some open shots."

Bijiek and Forrest both canned three 3-pointers apiece in the first half, and they combined to score 26 of Bucknell's 29 points in the opening 20 minutes. But the Blue Devils clamped down defensively in the second half, holding that duo to two points while limiting the Bison to 3-for-12 shooting from the arc.

Down 19-9 early, Forrest got hot, hitting back-to-back treys in his own personal 10-2 run. Duke ran its lead right back up to 10 with eight straight points, keyed by 3-pointers from Proctor and Mitchell. The Bison remained engaged thanks to threes from Forrest and Bijiek, the latter bringing Bucknell within 33-29 with 3:32 left in the half.

The quick-strike Blue Devils retaliated with 11 straight points in just over two minutes, with Proctor and Roach igniting that spurt with 3-pointers. Down 44-29 at the half, Bucknell started the second half with a Forrest layup, but Proctor answered with a three, and Roach and Jared McCain connected soon after, stretching the margin to 22 at 55-33.

Duke went on to lead by as many 34 late in the game. The Blue Devils finished with a 46-27 rebounding edge and a 23-0 advantage in second-chance points. Duke had 23 assists against seven turnovers, while the Bison also took good care of the ball with 13 assists on 20 field goals with 13 turnovers.

Bucknell (1-4) shot 37.0 percent from the field and finished 9-for-29 from the arc and 11-for-15 from the foul line.

Bucknell wraps up the three-game Blue Devil Challenge on Monday at home against Southern Indiana. The Bison and Screaming Eagles will tip off at 7 p.m. at Sojka Pavilion.

No. 9 Duke Pulls Away from Bison at Blue Devil Challenge

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Team Stats

Jack Forrest

Ruot Bijiek

Noah Williamson

Ian Motta

Players Mentioned

Josh Bascoe

Ruot Bijiek

Elvin Edmonds IV

Jack Forrest