No. 2 Duke beat No. 17 Kansas 90-84 in Sunday's men's basketball exhibition at Allen Fieldhouse. Patrick Ngongba II scored 28 points and collected 10 rebounds, according to Duke's game report. His line was excellent. The more useful question for Duke is how much work it asked him to do while the rest of its offense remained uneven.
Duke committed 14 turnovers while Kansas committed only eight. It took five more field-goal attempts. Duke still won because it made 27 free throws to Kansas's 18 and held a 43-30 rebounding edge, according to the Kansas box score. Ngongba went 9-for-12 from the field and 9-for-10 at the line. He accounted for nine of Duke's made free throws himself. Those are concrete ways a center can steady an offense that has given away extra possessions.
The result behind the score
Duke trailed 45-43 at halftime. The schools traded leads in the second half before Duke's late 11-point run, which its report says coincided with seven straight Kansas misses. John Blackwell's four made threes and 23 points also mattered. The two leading scorers supplied 51 of Duke's 90 points. That concentration should keep the result from becoming a claim that every part of Duke's offense is ready.
The Jayhawks had answers of their own. Tyran Stokes scored 27 points and handed out seven assists in the official box score. Kansas also scored 25 fast-break points to Duke's six. Duke's rebounding and foul-line advantage won this afternoon, but the transition gap gives Jon Scheyer a specific problem to revisit before the regular season.
CBR's earlier Duke guard preview asked how the backcourt would handle a ranked exhibition opponent. The Kansas game adds a different answer to Duke's preseason file. Ngongba can carry a large share of the scoring and rebounding when the ball changes hands too often. A regular-season opponent may defend that combination differently. Duke opens against Army on November 2, so the Kansas result is evidence of one exhibition response, not a standings win or a season-long forecast.
