NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Roach tied a career high with 22 points and No. 15 Duke led virtually the entire way in a 74-62 victory over Iowa on Tuesday night in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden.
With cancer survivor Dick Vitale calling the game for ESPN, the Blue Devils (9-2) won their third straight since a 19-point loss to Purdue last month in the championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy.
Roach entered 10 of 29 from the floor in his past three games since scoring 21 points against Xavier on Nov. 25. He helped Duke improve to 4-0 in this event by shooting 8 for 18 and making three of the team's seven 3-pointers.
Mark Mitchell added 13 of his 17 points in the second half. Kyle Filipowski had 12 points and 10 rebounds for his sixth double-double, and Ryan Young grabbed 11 boards to help the Blue Devils outrebound Iowa 45-35.
Patrick McCaffery led the Hawkeyes (6-2) with 12 points in a game that had special meaning to him. The junior forward was 13 when he was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid, the small gland at the base of the front of the neck that regulates a person’s metabolism.
The son of Iowa coach Fran McCaffery had two operations in 2014, and his grueling follow-up treatment included taking two radioactive iodine pills to eliminate any possible remaining cancer cells from his lymph nodes.
Three months after his diagnosis, he was declared cancer-free.
Iowa-Duke was the second game of the Jimmy V Classic doubleheader for cancer research. In the opener, No. 17 Illinois outlasted No. 2 Texas in overtime.
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