Tomko: Thomas No Turkey In Post Thanksgiving Win Over The Dukes

DURHAM, N.C. ? Nobody had more fun or brought more energy to the basketball court Friday afternoon than Lance Thomas, exciting the sell out Cameron crowd seemingly every time he touched the ball.

“I was being relentless,” Thomas said. “I wasn't taking no for an answer. I was making sure I keyed in on finishing the ball. Making sure I was grabbing rebounds. My teammates kept confidence in me. When they gave me the ball they knew I would finish.”

The 6'8” junior scoring 16 of his team high 21 points in the paint before leaving the game with 12:08 remaining in the second half to a standing ovation from the Cameron Crazies in Duke's 95-72 win over Duquesne.

In a 31 second stretch during the second half, Thomas scored seven points attempting only two shots from the floor. Greg Paulus set up Thomas with 12:40 to play feeding the forward on the right block before he connected on the shot drawing and knocking down the free throw.

David McClure then stole the ball from B.J. Monteiro on Duquesne's next trip down the floor before sending the pass to Thomas for the fast break bucket and foul, which was ruled an intentional by the officials. Thomas knocked down the pair of free throws to cap the personal 7-0 run before exiting the game.

“It feels good because on any given night any of our guys can actually have a game like that,” Thomas said. “We have such a balanced team and a deep team that something like that can happen on any given night. It says a lot about our team that we can do it.”

Tonight for Duke it was all about Thomas, who said his secret weapon prior to the game was the sour skittles he consumed before tipoff.

“Lance is a weird dude,” Kyle Singler said. “He can find anything to get him going, whether it is sour skittles or any types of candy, if he did what he did tonight it's going to be good.”

Thomas energized his teammates from the moment he entered the ball game 16:23 remaining in the first half and the Blue Devils up only 9-6. Over the next six minutes with Thomas on the floor the Blue Devils went on a 12-2 run with the forward scoring five points, grabbing two rebounds, an assist to Singler inside and a steal that was converted into two made free throws by McClure.

“Lance has played really well,” Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our guys saw him a couple times when he slipped a screen and he has played with a lot of energy. There has been nobody who's been more enthusiastic in the preseason, and once we started the season than Lance Thomas. We have called him another starter for our team. Obviously today he had a terrific game.”

The hard work began in the offseason where Thomas worked out at Duke everyday with a combination of eating and lifting weights helping to add 18 pounds of muscle to his frame.

Most of the team worked out together over the summer but Singler was very influential in Thomas's training process.

“Kyle was the person that I worked out hard with this summer,” Thomas said. “We both put on weight so it has been really good for us.”

The increased consistent play of both Thomas and Brian Zoubek have also be helped allow Singler to not focus on being an inside presence, allowing the sophomore forward to take a more active and diverse role in the offense.

“Kyle is good at so many other things, that me and Zoubek, doing what we are supposed to do [allows] Kyle to actually effect the game in other was,” Thomas said. “Kyle is a very good player and he is going to find a way to get it down.”

Thomas is averaging 18 minutes a game, coming off the bench in all seven contests, and shooting 67.6 percent, scoring 9.1 points and grabbing 4.3 rebounds for the season.

“I know what I do off the court,” Thomas said. “When no one is looking I am making sure that I am putting my work in. I am making sure that my body is good when we practice. I am making sure I can have back to back good practices and also help make my team better as far as energy and enthusiasm. That is something I have been working on and it's starting to show.”