Duke Freshman Marvin Bagley III Scores 34 as Duke Beats Texas in Overtime

Duke forward Marvin Bagley III is a freshman who is already making an impact on the college basketball scene. In the Blue Devils’ season opener against Michigan State on November 14th, the 6’11” Phoenix native scored four points, hauled down six rebounds, one blocked shot, an had one steal in 10 minutes of playing time in the 88-81 victory over the Spartans. All in all, it was a fairly decent debut. In his next game on the 17th vs. Southern University, Bagley scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds; he scored 24 points with eight rebounds against Furman on the 20th. Both were Duke victories.

Duke then traveled to Portland, Oregon to take on Portland State in the Phil Knight Invitational tournament. Bagley scored 18 points with 15 rebounds in the Blue Devils’ 99-81 win over the Vikings on November 23rd. Then against Texas, he scored 34 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as Duke beat the Longhorns in overtime 85-78. Bagley’s 34 points tied the Duke freshman record set by J.J. Reddick back in 2003, pretty good company to be in with.

Bagley will get to showcase his talents next on Sunday night November 26th, when the #1 ranked Blue Devils take on #7 Florida in the one of the championship games of the Phil Knight Invitational. The sixteen team tournament, named after Nike founder Phil Knight, features two eight team brackets. The other championship game features #4 Michigan State and #9 North Carolina. That will make for quite an evening of college basketball.