Duke Basketball product sizzles for winless team ‘Down Under’

Through the first three appearances of Matthew Hurt’s debut season in NBL Australia, the 2019-21 Duke basketball forward leads the South East Melbourne Phoenix (0-3) with 18.0 points per contest.

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The 24-year-old, a former five-star from Minnesota who went undrafted after winning ACC MVP honors in the 2020-21 season as a Duke basketball sophomore, has yet to score fewer than 16 points in a game for Phoenix. And he has yet to shoot more than 53 percent from the field. Moreover, in 32.8 minutes per game, he records 7.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 blocks and only 1.0 turnovers.

In other words, despite the team’s slipping in the first three games, Hurt quickly became a high-scoring attraction in the NBL competition:

Hurt’s stats are comparable to his last two years with the Memphis Hustle in the G League. Between those campaigns, he averaged 17.6 points, shot over 50 percent from the field, and earned his first eight regular-season NBA starts with two 10-day contracts with the Memphis Grizzlies late in the year.

After averaging just 9.7 points per game as a Duke basketball rookie, Hurt bulked up and expanded his repertoire to 18.3 points per game while shooting 44.4% from beyond the arc as a second-year Blue Devil.

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