No. 3 Duke overwhelms Illinois by 43 points

Isaiah Evans scored 17 points, Cooper Flagg finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, and No. 3 Duke cruised to a 110-67 win over Illinois on Saturday night in New York.

Kon Knueppel added 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting for Duke (24-3), which never trailed. Khaman Maluach scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds, and Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster chipped in 12 apiece as seven Blue Devils players scored in double digits.

Tre White scored 16 points to lead Illinois (17-11), which sustained the most lopsided loss in program history with the 43-point defeat. Kasparas Jakucionis finished with 14 points as the Fighting Illini lost their third straight game.

Duke shot 55.6 percent (40 of 72) from the field and 52.2 percent (12 of 23) from 3-point range. Illinois shot 37.7 percent (23 of 61) overall and 7.7 percent (2 of 26) from beyond the arc.

The Blue Devils won the rebounding battle 44-30 and had a 43-15 advantage in bench points en route their fourth consecutive victory and 20th in their last 21 outings.

The offensive woes and defensive miscues that plagued Illinois throughout the first half continued after the break.

Duke opened the second half on a 9-0 run to seize a 63-37 lead with 17:39 remaining. Flagg started the run with a dunk, Knueppel knocked down a 3-pointer, Knueppel struck again with a layup and Flagg finished off the scoring binge with another dunk.

About five minutes later, the Blue Devils had increased their advantage to 33 points. Flagg drained a 3-pointer to put Duke on top 75-42 with 12:35 to play.

Foster put the Blue Devils at the century mark when he drained a 3-pointer with 3:51 left. His deep shot gave Duke a 100-62 lead.

Duke raced to a 54-37 lead at the half.

Illinois competed in the early going. White dunked to cut the Fighting Illini deficit to 14-10 with 14:46 to go in the first half.

Duke went on a 16-6 run to increase its lead to 30-16 with 9:08 left in the half. Knueppel punctuated the run with a layup off a pass from Sion James.

The Blue Devils pulled ahead by as many as 23 points late in the half. Maluach made a layup to give Duke a 50-27 advantage with 3:16 to go before the break.

--Field Level Media