By ADAM ZAGORIA
Zion Williamson made an emphatic statement in Duke’s final game in Canada.
The 6-foot-7, 285-pound Duke freshman went off for 36 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks as Duke routed McGill, 103-58, in Montreal.
Fellow freshman R.J. Barrett added 23 points and 10 assists. He scored 89 points in three games in his native Canada, averaging 29.7 on the trip.
Williamson flashed the full array of what Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called his “graceful” athleticism, throwing down ferocious dunks while also pulling up at the foul line for jumpers.
Here is a slow motion look at @DukeMBB freshman @ZionW32’s pull-up jumper from the foul line in the first half against #Montreal’s #McGill University on @espn+
We’ll be monitoring the progress of his jumper throughout the season pic.twitter.com/yvAne9zLzl
— DraftExpressContent (@DXContent) August 19, 2018
Zion’s second jump though ?? pic.twitter.com/rrcObfQ5aS
— ESPN (@espn) August 19, 2018
Duke is playing without injured freshmen Cam Reddish and Tre Jones, while sophomore guard Alex O’Connell suffered a broken orbital bone near his right eye on Wednesday when he was elbowed.
“I think (R.J.) and Zion were placed in a position in these two games to shoot it a lot,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the second game. “When we get our full complement of players, they’ll still shoot the ball a lot but they won’t shoot it as much as they did in these two games. I think when R.J. takes his time, he’s an outstanding shooter. He’s a moving guy so he makes really good moves to the basket and gets fouled. He’ll hit his free throw better than he did these two days because he’s going to get fouled a lot. They needed to shoot like they did and the other guys need to play off and get offensive boards and they did a good job of that.”
Duke will play Kentucky in the Champions Classic Nov. 6 in Indianapolis.
For more, read about the group chat that led to Duke’s historic No. 1 recruiting class.
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