DUKE 71

NC STATE 66

February 19, 2000

  C-Well? Player of the Year

   Duke defeated NC State 71-66 on February 19th in the ESA.  The win clinched a tie for first place in the ACC, Duke's fourth consecutive time achieving this.  It also extended their ACC road win streak to 18.  Like their first meeting in Cameron, Duke got out to an early meeting.  Unlike that meeting, State was never able to catch up, falling behind by double digit margins several times.  While the Pack threw a scare into Duke at the end with  their ferocious press, and while the Devils missed a couple of one-and-ones, Duke still never fell below a 4 point, 2 possession lead.  This game was won with two things: fantastic team defense, perhaps the best displayed all season; and Chris Carrawell.  Having laid low for a couple of games, C'well played 38 minutes here and did everything: scoring, rebounding, passing, defense, steals, blocking shots, etc.  And he did it when Duke needed it most, scoring 13 of Duke's last 17 points and finishing with 22.  He ran the team quite a bit since Williams was out with foul trouble, and finished with only 1 turnover and 5 assists.  In fairness, State was missing Ron Kelley and Marshall Williams due to injuries, and Kelley in particular was an offensive force down low.  Still, the ESA is a tough place to play and State was fired up.

  Early on, Duke showed that they were serious about this game by going on a 10-0 run to start the game.  They were sizzling, hitting a couple of threes and aggressively going after drives.  For the rest of the game, the theme was that Duke would make a run, NC State would counter; lather, rinse, repeat.  In the game, Duke did two things exceptionally well: defend the three pointer (which was a serious issue against Maryland) and prevent easy shots.  On the other hand, Duke did a bad job of preventing stickbacks on rebounds and avoiding fouls.  Both of the latter factors helped State stay in the game. 

  After State cut the lead to 6, Duke scored the next 5, with the most notable basket a tough jumper from James.  State hit a three (one of only three in the game) and another basket to again pull within 6.  Duke scored 3 in a row before State mounted their first threat with a 6-0 run that  brought them to within 18-15.  Battier stepped up and hit a long 2, beginning a series of traded baskets for the two teams.  Finally, Duke reasserted itself thanks to Boozer and Carrawell, who combined for 6 points and put Duke up by 10 late in the half.  Some breakdowns on rebounding allowed State to creep to within 6 at the half.  Duke shot 50% but only 2-10 from three and had turned the ball over 7 times. 

  Knowing that they had let State stay in the game, the Devils responded with a 10-2 run that featured 5 points from Boozer, 2 assists from C'well and a big three from Williams.  The Boozer highlight was seeing him get an offensive rebound, then getting the basket and the foul.  State came back once again with a 7-2 run, but this time it was Battier and Williams who matched it and then some, getting 7 in a row to put Duke up 53-37, the  largest lead of the day.  The pesky Pack just wouldn't go away, ripping off a 9-2 run to reduce the lead to 9 points with eight minutes left.  For the next two minutes, it was C'well time, scoring from the foul line, the 3 point arc and in the lane.  Boozer and Battier followed up to put Duke up 16 with four minutes left, the game seemingly in the bag.

  State put on a full-court press and really rattled Duke.  They attacked  on the inbounds play and trapped as soon as the ballhandler crossed the halfcourt line.  This led to some bad shots, missed free throws, thrown away passes and outright steals.  State was staying away from the three and concentrated on the drive and it was working, with Anthony Grundy going nuts.  But each time things got really hairy, C'well was there.  He stopped a 6-0 run with a cut on a great pass from Williams.  He stopped a 4-0 run with a drive that put Duke up 10 with a minute left, seemingly in great shape.  More missed free throws hurt Duke and State continued to rally, behind only 70-66 with about 20 seconds left.  But Duke got the ball in Carrawell's hands, he got fouled, made 1 and then went back on defense.  State needed either a 2 or a 3 because of the margin, and several players turned down shots because Duke players had rotated so quickly to meet the shooter. It finally ended up in Archie Miller's hands in the lane, who traveled.  That ended up being the ballgame as Duke survived another hostile environment and C'well became the first Duke player to participate in four regular season championships.  He's got a legitimate shot to break Laettner and Davis' record for most win overall, needing 9 more wins to tie.  It's ironic that Duke's best player was passed over for McDonald's All-American honors as a senior and whose college choice came down to Duke vs. St. Louis.  What makes Chris great is not just his clutch play or his ability to come up big in big games.  It's his game-to-game consistency in most every category, be it points, assists or rebounds, that makes him a great one.            

 ** Negatives:

 1. Blocking out.  Duke allowed 17 offensive rebounds, which helped keep State in the game.  Battier looked a little bit slow on getting to the ball.

 2. Foul shooting.  Duke ganked 2 one-and-ones that made the game much more competitive than it needed to be.  The Devils also didn't do a very good job of getting to the foul line with only 13 attempts.  The game was not very tightly called, however.

 3. End of game inbounding/ballhandling.  Duke made some bad decisions  inbounding the ball and turned it over near midcourt another couple of times. I think the players tightened up a little after losing a big lead in a game that you had complete control of.

 ** Positives:

 1. Defense.  Duke did a remarkable job on its rotation over to the shooter and collapsing on players in the post.  The helpside D was excellent.  I think the young players are really starting to understand how to play Duke defense.  Williams was especially impressive in covering Gainey and Miller.

 2. Shot selection.  Duke attacked State with penetration and thus got a  huge edge on FG%.  The Devils backed off on taking threes and instead attacked State at their weak point, inside play.  Boozer, Battier and Carrawell shot a combined 62%. 

 3. Use of bench.  Coach K is using Horvath and Sanders more in the first half, especially when he has a little lead.  It allowed Carrawell to sit for a couple of minutes, which may well have been the difference in his performance down the stretch.  Chris looked very fresh and alert as he  killed the Pack at the end.

 Player-by-Player Analysis:

 ** Boozer:  Impressive offensive game for Carlos, who also battled Thornton hard down low.  He didn't do a great job on the boards, which allowed State to come back a bit, but did play pretty good defense.  Boozer didn't miss a single field goal attempt, getting assisted on four of them.  He had one score off an offensive rebound and also threw down a dunk that put Duke up by 14 in the second half.  Carlos also found Jason for a three.  He caught the ball cleanly after getting some good feeds, and finished efficiently. And doing this against a tough defensive player like Thornton is no small achievement.

 ** Battier:  Quite a solid game for Shane, although it would have been nice if he had been able to get to the foul line a bit more often.  Shane had 4 turnovers, 3 of which came on borderline travelling calls as he was trying to drive, so I don't consider that to be a particular concern.  Shane was very strong offensively in the early going, driving for an early score and nailing a three to put Duke up by 8, and then making a solid entry pass for a Boozer layup.  When State went on a 6-0 run, he hit a tough 17' jumper to put Duke up 20-15.  He nailed a tough 12' jumper with just 40 seconds left in the first half.  He helped stretch an 11 point lead in the second half with a rebound bucket and another drive, the latter putting Duke up by 16 with eleven minutes left.  Finally, Battier hit an 18' jumper to put Duke up by 16 again with 4:27 left.  It looked like that was going to put away the Pack for good, but they kept coming.  Shane had one bad inbounds play that contributed to their comeback.  He also surprisingly missed the front end of a one-and-one, but made up for it with some superb defense.  His defense on Thornton and Inge was excellent.  Shane surpassed 1,000 career points in this game, the 47th player in Duke history to do so.

 ** Carrawell:  While I prefer for Duke to have a nice balanced scoring attack, it's also a great thing to have a player who is able to get you a score when you need it.  And in this game, Duke needed Carrawell badly, and he delivered over and over again.  Use every cliche about clutch player, money player, the right man in the right spot, and they all describe C-well to a tee.  I call him the Result-Getter, because while his game is not smooth and pretty, he gets results.  Off-hand, can you think of a smarter player that Duke's ever had?  Tommy Amaker, maybe?  Perhaps Danny Ferry?  And Chris has the same immunity to pressure that Laettner had, and the versatility of a G.Hill.  C'well was puttering along in the first half, setting up others and scoring a bit.  He found Williams and Battier early on for threes, and then scored on a Williams feed to put Duke up 10-0.  His jumper was misfiring a bit in the first half, so he turned to his drive which got him 6 points, 2 on free throws.  He continued to set up others, finding Dunleavy on a cut for an easy dunk.  He also played excellent defense, coming up with 2 blocks and shutting down Wilkins.  He continued to set up others early in the second half, finding Williams for threes a couple of times and getting Boozer a  good entry pass.  But Chris' heroics didn't really begin until there were about eight minutes left.  State had ripped off a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 57-46.  Chris drove and got fouled, hitting both shots.  State scored again to cut it to 9, but he foiled them again with a three and then a  turnaround jumper in the lane, putting Duke up 62-48 with six minutes to go. State rallied to cut a 16 point lead to 10, but Williams found C'well on a cut.  State continued to fight, bringing the lead down to 8 with under two minutes to go.  C'well demanded the ball from Williams, driving on the smaller Gainey to put Duke up 10 with a minute left.  6 straight State points had them thinking of their miracle in Cameron, but Chris hit a free throw with 16 seconds left to deflate those hopes, and contributed to the excellent defense at the end of the game.  After the game, Coach K said that in situations like that, missing free throws can make a team think that it's playing worse than it actually is, and that making that one shot gave Duke much more  energy on the defensive end.  With this game, Chris has scored 1,312 points and just moved ahead of Tate Armstrong and Robert Brickey on the all-time scoring list.

 ** James:  While Nate scrapped for a few rebounds and had several assists, this was one of his worst offensive games for quite awhile.  He hit a tough early jumper, but those would turn out to be the only points he'd get the whole game.  Worse, he missed the front end of a one-and-one with the Pack mounting a furious comeback in the last minute.  Hopefully, he'll be able to mount performances more similar to his outstanding effort against FSU vs Wake. Wake's depth will demand that more of Duke's players need to step up.

 ** Williams:  Jason had a solid effort.  He played fine defense against Miller and Gainey, holding them to a combined 5 points on 2-8 shooting. And he accomplished this despite some early foul trouble.  Jason's big  target today was Carrawell, finding him on cuts three different times. Until the last couple of minutes, his turnovers were pretty low as well, but he made a big blunder by getting his pocket picked near the sidelines in the last couple of minutes.  Of course, he wasn't the only player who turned it over then, and he generally did a pretty good job of breaking the press.  His offensive output in the second half was pretty significant, hitting a three when State closed to within 4, then later scoring on a cut to put Duke up by 14.  He hit another three in the middle of a 7-0 Duke run that turned back another State mini-rally.  Jason also had a pretty strong day on the boards, alertly grabbing some long State misses.  He's very good at starting up the break immediately after getting the board.  Jason's  quickness and ability to speed dribble, combined with his growing ability to make good decisions in the halfcourt game, have really turned him into a very solid point guard.  He still needs to improve in understanding what to do in certain game situations, particularly late game situations.  His shooting has really picked up as of late, and in fact he's now 5th in the ACC in 3 point FG%.     

 ** Dunleavy:  Mike is sick (might have mono) and played like it, though he gave a gutty effort.  He made several ballhandling and passing mistakes down the stretch but also had a couple of assists.  One thing that Mike did do well all day was rebound, getting 5, second on the team.  His only field goal came on a wide-open dunk on a back-door pass.  His most ill-advised shot was a quick three late in the game at a time when Duke was trying to milk the clock.  Mike also came up with a steal and a block, meaning that he seemed OK  defensively despite his sickness.  It would really hurt Duke to lose him for  any period of time, but that might well happen.  We'll how his condition in a couple of days.

 ** Christensen:  Matt didn't play quite as well as he had recently.  Had an awkward charge on a transition play.  Only got 1 board.  

 ** Horvath:  Fought for a tough board and missed an awkward jumper.  But he looked confident and didn't embarrass himself, and this enabled the regulars in getting extra rest.

 ** Sanders:  Gave a couple of solid minutes.  A potential block was (correctly) called a goaltend, but he also got an offensive rebound and laid it back in.  Wojo caled it hi first big basket of the year.  Played decent defense.  

 Next Game: 

   Tuesday, February 22nd vs Wake Forest in Cameron.  Wake has really struggled lately, surprising considering many thought of them as a first  division ACC team this year.  They've had some problems with chemistry and are without athletic small forward Niki Arinze, but came close to beating Maryland.  Wake is also the program that beat Duke in Cameron 5 straight years, so they're not afraid of that environment.  As always, the most important matchups are with talented by foul-prone PF Darius Songaila and scorer supreme G Robert o'Kelley.  F Josh Howard has also been a do-it-all handyman.  Josh Shoemaker and Rafael Vidaurreta both rebound and play solid defense.  Duke needs to come out hungry and play suffocating defense, because if ROK gets hot then he's big trouble, because he tends to stay on hot streaks for long periods of time.  Against UNC in Winston-Salem, he scored 20+ points in the second half alone.  Songaila is tough to stop with his combination of perimeter skills and post toughness, but his fouls hurt him. Craig Dawson and Ervin Murray are x-factors; Murray is now at point and Duke must pressure him into giving up turnovers.  Dawson can go off at any time. Wake really needs to win to improve their fading NCAA chances.    

 Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu