Duke broke out to a solid lead and it looked like this might just be a blow-out win. Jahlil Okafor was just doing his thing; however, St. John's fought back and was leading 43 - 39 at half time. Technically, it should have been a 40 - 39 lead. The final 3 point shot by St. John's was obviously made after the possession clock had run down. On the other hand, St. John's missed some easy shots and made some silly turn-overs. But those silly turn-overs was actually how St. John's made their comeback in the first half. They forced the pace and Duke's defense bled.In the second half, St. John's started to pull away, taking advantage of Duke's porous defense. (One has to pray that Duke improves their defense over the rest of the season or it'll be another early out come March.) So how did Duke win this game by a solid margin? I say Marshall Plumlee. Wait, how can someone who scored only 2 points drive a victory. He was inserted late in the second half and it was his defense that won the game. Suddenly, when St. John's got the ball pass Duke's guards, there was Marshall Plumlee and Jahlil Okafor. It isn't all that easy to shoot over two 7 footers (or near 7 footers).
One can only hope that this was Marshall Plumlee's breakout game. It would be great to have a situation similar to when Brian Zoubek broke out, which resulted in a Duke championship. I feel that over the last couple years there has been plenty of praise for Marshall Plumlee, but that tends to be focused on his play during practice. It'd be nice to see that praise coming due to his game time play.
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