Trevor Keels' 23 second-half points lead Duke to 82-64 win at Clemson

By Lauren Brownlow, WRALSportsFan columnist/reporter

7Duke Blue Devils	82
Clemson Tigers	64
Final

Cameron Indoor Stadium gives Duke such a home-court advantage that naturally, Duke is usually better on its home court than at home.

But after a 69-68 loss to Virginia at home on Monday, No. 7 Duke (20-4, 10-3 ACC) won its fifth straight road game in convincing fashion at Clemson (12-12, 4-9 ACC), 82-64.

Back on January 25, Duke squeaked by Clemson at home, 71-69.

But Duke didn't have Trevor Keels then, and Clemson did have starting center Hunter Tyson. This time, Duke did have Keels. And Clemson didn't have Tyson.

Keels, though, clearly made the bigger difference as the freshman guard scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half.

It seemed like Duke would pull away in the first half, and though it never trailed, it never quite pulled away either. Duke got out to a quick 12-point lead with 11:55 to go in the first half, but Clemson responded with an 8-0 run to cut Duke's lead to just four points.

Duke quickly rattled off a 9-0 run capped off by an A.J. Griffin 3-pointer that gave Duke its biggest lead of the night, 13 points, with 5:32 remaining in the half.

With 3:01 to go in the first, Wendell Moore got a steal and Clemson's David Collins fouled him hard with a hip check, earning himself a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection. Duke was whistled a technical foul because its coaching staff came out on the floor, but Duke went on a 5-0 run to extend its lead from seven to 12 points.

Clemson cut it to single digits just once after that, on a P.J. Hall 3-pointer with less than a minute to go. But Paolo Banchero hit a layup at the halftime buzzer to put Duke back up 11.

In the second half, it seemed like Clemson might hang around. The Tigers kept it within single digits for most of the first 7 1/2 minutes.

But then Duke started to pull away.

Clemson trailed by nine with 12:20 to go, but Duke went on a 20-7 run to take command of the game for good and go up by 22.

Keels led all scorers with his 25 points (on 9 of 13 shooting) and he made it a double-double with 11 rebounds. Mark Williams made all eight of his shot attempts for 16 points, while Paolo Banchero added 15 points (on 5 of 15 shooting) and Griffin bounced back from a bad performance against Virginia with 12 (4 of 5 from 3).

Duke shot 49.2% for the game and nearly 58% in the second half.

Clemson shot just 37.9% for the game and 5 of 18 (27.8%) from 3.

Hall led the Tigers with 17 points while Chase Hunter and Naz Bohannon each added 13.

Duke will travel to Boston to face Boston College on Saturday.