The Morning Dish – Friday, November 28th
Shootout underway: Starting with the second game of the Great Alaska Shootout, No. 2 Duke turned it on in the second half to down a pesky Pacific squad 82-69. In what’s recently become fashionable for Duke, the Blue Devils started off slow, grabbing their first lead at the 9-minute mark of the first half, and only had a six point lead at halftime. However, fueled by a 14-4 run to start the second half, Duke pushed the lead to 22 points at the four minute mark, before Pacific scratched back to make it respectable. Daniel Ewing and Luol Deng each had 20 points for the Dukies, and Deng added 10 boards. Pacific was led by Miah Davis’ 24 points and Guillaume Yango who added 18. A milestone was set, as Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski passed legendary UCLA coach John Wooden in the all-time career victories list, with his 665th.
In the first game, Liberty’s Larry Blair scored 12 of his 17 points in the first half en route to a 65-48 win over Canisius. Liberty (1-2) got a strong effort from Jason Sarchet as he had eight points and nine rebounds. Two schools were neck and neck for most of the contest but a three-pointer by Blair ignited a 17-4 run with just under seven minutes to go to jump Liberty up 51-34. Richard Jones scored 15 points in the loss. Liberty will face Duke tonight at 12:30 AM Eastern.
Lowe Leads Boilermakers: Senior guard Kenneth Lowe had 26 points, including 12-for-13 from the charity stripe, to help lead Purdue to a 61-50 over Texas State in more action at the Great Alaska Shootout. Lowe was also a blazing 7-for-13 from the field and also handed out five assists. Brandon McKnight had 13 points to round out double-digit scorers for the Boilers. Despite shooting 35 percent from the field, Purdue used an 83 percent shooting night from the line to help get past the aggressive Texas State squad. Zach Allison had 14 in the losing cause.
Hopkins brothers out indefinitely: Brothers Bryan and Ryan Hopkins of Southern Methodist University have decided to leave the team immediately to tend to a family emergency, head coach Mike Dement announced. The length of how long the two will be away from the team is unknown at this time. Bryan Hopkins scored 15 points in the Mustang’s season opener win over Texas Pan-American last Saturday.
Tonight’s Menu
• A big early season match-up is pitted between third ranked Arizona and ninth ranked Florida in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic in Springfield, Mass. Florida is coming off a down-right dominating performance against Montana State on Tuesday in a 112-73 win. The Wildcats are coming off a 100-point effort themselves in a 107-73 win over Northern Arizona. Arizona’s Channing Frye scored 20 points in the win and will have to have a similar game to get past a Florida team that would like to get rolling on the right foot with a pair of in-state rivals coming up next on their schedule.
• In other top 25 action, Kentucky will host Tennessee Tech and Pittsburgh will host Albany, while as mentioned above, Duke will face Liberty in the Great Alaska Shootout
• The pre-season NIT championship will pit Texas Tech and Georgia Tech with Connecticut and Utah playing for the consolation prize.
• Also in tournament action, Maine will host New England College in the University of Maine Invitational. In the Red Auerbach Classic, William & Mary will play St. Francis (Pa.) and George Washington.
