The Duke Blue Devils advanced to the third round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament after a convincing win over the Albany Great Dane on Friday. Thanks to a solid shooting night from all over the floor, great defense and ball movement, Duke was able to knock off Albany 73-61.
Seth Curry handled business as usual. He racked up 26 points on 10-14 shooting. He also had two steals in the game. Quinn Cook finished the game with nine assists while Mason Plumlee controlled the glass grabbing nine rebounds and scoring 23 points.
Albany put up a decent fight, but it wasn't enough against these hungry Blue Devils. Almost everybody on the team chipped in points, but nobody had an outstanding performance. Their top scorer was Jacob Lati who scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds. Helping him out with the scoring load was guard Peter Hooley who finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.
By the time the closing minutes of the second half came along, Coach Mike Krzyzewski had the bench out on the floor. However, Albany made a brief run, with about three minutes to go, Albany cut the lead to nine on a three pointer by Mike Black, but Plumlee answered right back putting Duke up by double digits again with a slam dunk.
The Great Dane could have played excellent basketball, but it's tough stopping a Duke team on a roll and shooting close to 60 percent. In this game, Duke shot 58.7 percent.
With the victory, Duke prepares to face either Cincinnati or Creighton in the third round of the tournament.
