Much was made of the matchup against likely all-conference selection Maxime Raynaud heading into Saturday, as the star center figured to be a tough matchup for freshman big Khaman Maluach. However, the youngster won the first matchup of the day, forcing a turnover on Stanford’s first possession and slamming down a lob on the other end of the floor.
Raynaud had some answers of his own in the early going. The Paris native knocked down two triples before the first media timeout despite entering the contest having made just one of his last 15 attempts from downtown. Inside the arc though, the senior was troubled by Duke’s size and length. Maluach, Brown and Mason Gillis took turns making life difficult for the big man, as he went 0-for-5 on 2-point attempts to begin.
By the time the final buzzer had sounded, Raynaud had racked up 19 points and seven rebounds. Despite the lofty totals, Duke forced him into several tough shots. The center put up 21 attempts — nine from three — from the field in the losing effort.
“Raynaud is a tough cover. They do some really good things for him, but the fact that he scored 19 on 21 shots, that's really what you want,” head coach Jon Scheyer said.
The Maluach-Brown combo worked in perfect tandem all afternoon. Both bigs leaned on their respective skill sets to defend Raynaud and help Duke take a commanding lead. Maluach added several thunderous dunks inside and Brown multiple dimes to Proctor as head coach Jon Scheyer used them interchangeably.
Maluach in particular had a large impact on the contest. The Rumbek, South Sudan, native found himself in excellent position down low, and his teammates kept feeding him for open dunks. He also had his way on the offensive glass; four of Maluach’s six boards were offensive.
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