After missing a Duke basketball win with a concussion, Tyrese Proctor returns at Miami
After light work the last nine days as he recovered from a concussion, Duke’s Tyrese Proctor returned with a double-figure scoring night as the No. 8 Blue Devils posted another ACC basketball win on Wednesday night.
The sophomore guard was cleared from concussion protocol to travel with the team to south Florida on Tuesday and entered the game with 14:30 left in the first half against the Hurricanes at the Watsco Center.
He played 23 minutes, scoring 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting as the Blue Devils routed Miami, 84-55.
“I was really happy with Tyrese,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. ”We didn’t know how many minutes he could play tonight. He’s done about 10 minutes of contact since the last game he played for us aganst Wake Forest. I thought he had great minutes and played with a great pace.”
The 6-5 Proctor missed Duke’s 76-67 win at Florida State on Saturday after falling and hitting his head on the court in the first half of Duke’s Feb. 12 win over Wake Forest at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Proctor subsequently entered the athletic department’s concussion protocol, which kept him from practicing or traveling until his condition improved.
That happened and Proctor, who has started 16 games this season for Duke (20-5, 11-3 ACC), was made available to return.
In his first 21 games for the Blue Devils this season, Proctor averaged 10 points and 3.5 assists per game. He made 43.7% of his shots overall, including 35.5% of his 3-pointers.
The concussion is the second injury that’s caused Proctor to miss a game this season. On Dec. 2 at Georgia Tech, Proctor suffered a sprained right ankle in the early minutes of a game where the Yellow Jackets upset Duke, 72-68. Proctor didn’t return until Dec. 30 and didn’t start again until Jan. 13 at home against Georgia Tech.
The Wake Forest game, where he suffered the concussion, marked the sixth consecutive game he’d started for Duke. He went scoreless in his 25 minutes of play against the Demon Deacons. That was the third time over a four-game stretch that Proctor scored fewer than 10 points.
With their win Wednesday night, the Blue Devils (21-5, 12-3 ACC) have won 16 of their last 18 games and are now tied with North Carolina for first place in the ACC standings.
Proctor did not start the game for the Blue Devils as Scheyer went with freshmen guards Jared McCain and Caleb Foster along with senior guard Jeremy Roach and sophomore forwards Mark Mitchell and Kyle Filipowski.
