Austin Rivers star as Duke Blue Devils overpower Tennessee Volunteers 77-67: NCAA Basketball Recap
Duke Blue Devils have made it five out of five.
The college basketball powerhouses couldn’t have asked for a better start to NCAA Basketball tournament 2011. Just few hours ago, they handed Tennessee Volunteers their first defeat of the tournament in an exciting encounter to
improve their record to 5-0.
Tennessee are in a rebuilding phase after the whole coach Bruce Pearl’s episode, but despite that, they put up a good fight and gave Duke a run for their money. The game was hung in balance till late in the game but unfortunately
for Tennessee, Duke made a scoring burst in the clutch to seal the game.
Freshman Austin Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc River, was the star of the night with a game high 18 points. Seth Curry and Ryan Kelly were prolific as well and added 17 each whereas Mason Plumlee narrowly missed a
double-double with 8 points and 13 rebounds.
For Tennessee, Jeronne Maymon was impressive again and achieved his second consecutive double-double by scoring 14 points and 12 rebounds. Trae Golden chipped in with 13 on a 5 for 6 from the free throw line. Jordan McRae (11)
and Cameron Tatum (10) were the other two prominent players from the losing side.
Tennessee’s Coach Cuonzo Martin seemed satisfied with his team’s performance and added
"I thought our guys competed. They just made plays down the stretch and really executed. I thought we had a couple of quick shots, but it was tough”
Tennessee drew the first blood courtesy of two back to back free throws from Kenny Hall but Ryan Kelly replied immediately with a shot from outside the paint earning Dukes an early 3-2 lead. Both teams displayed impressive offense
and did not allow either to run away with the show. Tennessee were ahead 33-31 with just a minute remaining in the first half, however two consecutive threes from Austin followed by a jumper by Seth Curry denied Tennessee the lead and the half ended with scores
33-39 in the favour of Duke.
Tennessee started second half brilliantly and managed to eliminate the deficit within first few minutes however a quick and a crucial 5-0 spurt courtesy of Plumlee again took Duke ahead. Trae Golden and McRae tried hard from the
other side but were countered in their every attempt. The Duke lead kept inflating with time and with 2 minutes remaining, it reached 13 points. Tennessee needed to do something out of ordinary to win the game but in the end failed to do so and lost the game.
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