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Scheyer poured in a career-high 36 points, while Dawkins scored 16 off the bench in his first game since the death of his sister in an automobile accident, as the Blue Devils dominated Gardner-Webb 113-68 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
“Jon’s performance was spectacular — to hit 36 points with 13 shots is about as good as you can get,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I was really pleased with Andre, going through the week that he’s gone through, being away to deal with the tragic death of his sister.
“I thought his performance was outstanding.”
Scheyer and Dawkins had plenty of help, with four other players scoring in double digits as the No. 7 Blue Devils (8-1) put up their largest point total since scoring 121 against N.C. Central to open the 2007-08 season.
Big men Miles Plumlee and Brian Zoubek scored 13 points apiece, while the team’s leading scorers on the season — Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith — added 11 apiece.
Singler was questionable to play because of an ankle sprain but started the game, albeit slowly, not scoring until he hit a free throw at the 16:40 mark of the second half. Singler went on to score all of his points in roughly 10 minutes.
On the other hand, Scheyer scored from start to finish. He had gone 5-of-23 from 3-point range over his previous four games but hit all five of his 3-point attempts over the game’s first 15 minutes.
The fifth one gave Duke a 41-22 lead after Gardner-Webb (3-5) had trailed just 17-16 after seven minutes. At the time of his fifth of his seven 3-pointers, Scheyer’s 22 points matched Gardner-Webb’s total and was more than his teammates combined.
“I’ve been working real hard on my shot. The last 10 days since we haven’t had a game, it’s given us a lot of time to work on our individual games,” said Scheyer, who hit 7 of 9 3-pointers, all four of his two-pointers and all seven of his free throws. “I hadn’t been playing really well, and it wasn’t just about my shot — I didn’t feel like I was playing as well as I could be.
“Tonight, I was just excited to get out there and play because we haven’t played in a long time, and my stroke did feel real good.”
Even though Scheyer put up the most points in a game by a Duke player since J.J. Redick in 2006, it wasn’t all about scoring. Scheyer also had nine assists and eight rebounds — joining Danny Ferry and Jim Spanarkel as the only Duke players to have at least 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in a game.
And in the process, Scheyer became the first player in school history to rack up at least 1,500 points, 400 rebounds, 250 assists, 200 3-pointers and 150 steals.
“Even as many as points as he was scoring, it still felt like we were scoring and not just he was scoring,” Krzyzewski said.
None of Scheyer’s assists went to Dawkins, but his teammates have provided him with invaluable assistance since Duke’s most recent game.
Dawkins’ sister, Lacey, was killed in a car accident on Dec. 5 on her way to watch Duke’s last game before exam break, a victory over St. John’s. His mother, Tamara Hill, was injured in the wreck, though Dawkins said Tuesday that her injuries were minor enough that she was released from the hospital the day of the accident.
Dawkins went home to deal with the tragedy, then returned to school Saturday along with Krzyzewski and assistant coach Nate James, who attended the funeral in Charleston, W.Va., along with athletic director Kevin White.
“I really appreciate all the support from the fans and alumni,” Dawkins said. “Even [UNC] coach Roy Williams sent some flowers. I just appreciate all of that.
“I didn’t think it was tough to focus. Once I got in here and it was so intense, you don’t have any choice but to focus. It was easy to focus on basketball.”
Dawkins welcomed a step back toward normalcy, as did his teammates. The Blue Devils actually looked even better than normal, something they hope to continue when they face No. 15 Gonzaga on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
“I was pleased coming off this break with the enthusiasm and some of the sharpness that we had offensively,” Krzyzewski said. “In the time that we have had to practice, we’ve been working on a little bit more offense than defense to get in a better flow.
“I thought we had that.”
