#2 Duke 97
#24 Boston College 75
January 16, 2001
Cameron Indoor Stadium

Slap The Floor

  In a game that was truly a tale of two halves, Duke put together some of its best basketball of the year in the second half to put away a pesky Boston College team.  It was almost inevitable that there would be a bit of a letdown after Saturday's near-perfect performance, especially against a non-ACC team.  But BC's talent level made this game a lot more challenging than anyone could have expected when the game was scheduled, as they came in with only 1 loss and a victory against UConn.  And they never really threatened Duke, even if they did tie the game once early in the first half and cut the lead to 2 in the second.  But their lack of an inside game essentially doomed them, because they had to work very hard to get any points in the paint and could do nothing against Carlos Boozer.  Still, it took a very determined Duke run to finish them off in the second half.

   Things started well as Boozer rebounded his own miss, Shane nailed 3 free throws after being fouled on a three attempt, and Nate pulled up for an 18' jumper.  But the Eagles struck back with 6 in a row, the last on an offensive rebound basket.  Williams countered with a three, but a Duhon turnover helped BC tie the game at 10.  Their "center", 6-7 Uka Agbai, was getting good position and hitting open shots.  Duke took control again with a Battier three and a Christensen basket that fired up the team and the crowd.  After a series of misses by both teams, a BC offensive rebound brought them closer, and then a Duhon turnover led to another BC tap in.  Duke only led 15-14 with twelve minutes left in the half.

   On the next play, Jason passed over to Chris in the right corner.  The pass was a little high, so Chris jumped up, made a gorgeous touch pass to Battier, and Shane sank the open three.  On the next possession, Shane found Carlos for a dunk inside after a nice drop-down, and then Carlos returned the favor on the next possession.  After a BC three that cut the lead to five, Jason stole the ball and drove all the way for a basket.  On Duke's next possession, Carlos had the ball at the top of the key, saw a  lane and drove all the way in.  Duke had a nice working margin at 26-17 with about nine minutes left in the half.  BC was doing a pretty good job shutting off the baseline and keeping a lid on the perimeter, but they left the middle pretty much wide open the entire game.  They were able to collapse in on it in time on some occasions, but more often than not Duke was able to take advantage of this gap.

   Once again, BC was able to creep back into the game thanks to an offensive rebound and a Dunleavy turnover.  A Battier three kept them at arm's length, but a couple of more offensive rebounds trimmed the lead to 29-25 with  six minutes left in the half.  2 threes by Jason, an offensive rebound by Boozer and a Boozer three point play (where he missed the foul shot) gave Duke a 10-4 run, and a Williams drive put them up 41-31 with three  minutes to go in the half.  But turnovers by Battier, Christensen and Williams thwarted Duke's scoring efforts in the latter part of the half, and some gutty play by BC allowed them to sneak into the half down only 42-38.  Typical of the latter portion of the half was the last sequence, where Jason was doing a lot of dribbling and lost control of the ball before he could get a last shot off.

   Jason started off the half with a great fake that he then quickly zipped into a cutting Dunleavy.  But BC came back with a quick shot and then a couple of free throws off a turnover to cut the lead to only 44-42.  Everyone was murmuring a bit when Jason drove up the court and grimly sank a tough 15' pull-up jumper on the break.  Then the team slapped the floor, led by Jason.  When you slap the floor, each and every player has to mean it, has to commit to playing defense at a higher level.  After viewing this display with a bit of disdain a BC player took an off-balance shot that Boozer rebounded.  The crowd only got louder.  Then Jason and Mike  came up with a great play.  Jason zoomed down the court, stopped on a dime,  and then zipped a no-look pass to a cutting Dunleavy for a spectacular basket.  Everyone slapped the floor once again, sending the volume ever higher.  BC star Troy Bell missed badly against a resolute defense, and once again Boozer came up with the board.  On the next possession, Duke got a little bit of luck.  Nate James got the ball in the lane and was stumbling towards the basket.  He flipped up a shot that was actually deflected into the  basket by a BC player and converted a three point play after he was fouled. Unnerved, BC committed a turnover on the next play, which Duke eventually converted into 2 Boozer foul shots.  Another missed Bell jumper rebounded by Battier led to a spectacular break where a driving Williams dished to Boozer for a thunderous jam that brought the house down.  It was an 11-0 run in less than 2 minutes that gave Duke a 55-42 lead.

   BC stopped the bleeding with a three, but Williams came back and first found Dunleavy for a three and then Boozer for a nice turnaround.  The teams traded baskets for a while, with Williams driving into the lane for a layup and Bttier hitting a three.  The next four minutes consisted of Duke holding anywhere from a 15-19 point lead as Williams went coast-to-coast after a rebound, Battier hit a three and Williams hit a three.  But the Eagles had one last run in them as they hit back-to-back threes.  They trailed by 13 with eight minutes left, and thoughts of Stanford danced in my head.

   But this time, Chris Duhon put a stop to all that.  He first found Jason in the corner for three, as Williams used screens beautifully to get himself open.  Boozer then got a steal, but a pass meant for him bounced off his hands.  Luckily, it bounced into the hands of Duhon, who then zipped it right back to Carlos, who slammed it home.  A Battier block and a dumb offensive foul on Bell gave Duke some free throws, and they were suddenly up 83-62 with six minutes left.

   The rest of the game was basic clock management, as Williams drove for one basket himself to start things off.  Duhon drove and dished to Boozer, who nailed a 16' jumper.  Dunleavy used a series of fakes to get some space    to hit a 15' jumper of his own.  After 5 straight BC points to cut the  margin to 16 with about two minutes left, Jason drove and dished to Carlos, who once again slammed it home.  Another Williams drive with thirty seconds left sealed the deal--or at least it should have.

   With just thirty seconds left, a BC fouled Nate James as Duke inbounded the ball, a pretty annoying bit of gamesmanship.  Christensen then rebounded a BC miss and Williams walked it up the floor.  BC player Kenny Walls then draped himself all over Williams, coming very close to handchecking him and poking away at the ball with just seconds left in the game.  Williams, annoyed, then flashed a series of fake passes in front of Walls in an effort to get him to back off.  Instead, Walls took it personally, and shoved Williams into the scorer's table.  He looked like he wanted to take a swing at him, but cooler heads prevailed as Walls picked up a foul and a technical, which ended up being his fifth foul.  Williams did not strike back but instead nailed 3 of 4 free throws.  Walls was still fuming, and the refs directed Duke off the court--in the opposite direction they'd usually take.   Walls was roundly booed by the crowd and it was obvious that he was still  really mad; it seems to me that his team being throttled by Duke had something to do with the frustration.  Especially since BC had been talking trash at Williams all night in an effort to get to him.  In the end, Jason turned the tables on them.

   Duke was 19-27 from the field in the second half, for around 70% shooting. They were 14-17 from two point range, with the only misses an ill-advised Boozer reverse layup, a missed tip-in by Boozer and a miss by James.  When Duke was motivated and focused, there was nothing BC could do to stop them.  

** Positives:

1. Ball movement.  When Duke wasn't throwing the ball away, they did a great job of setting up their teammates for open shots. 

2. Balance.  Duke did well in spotting up for jumpers, slashing to the  basket, and working the ball inside for easy shots.

3. Team defense.  While Duke didn't use very much pressure, they did a solid job overall at getting in the face of BC's talented guards. 

** Negatives:

1. Rebounding.  A small BC team with a true center had 17 offensive rebounds, and this was the only way they managed to stay in the game.  Duke got big rebounds when they needed to in the second half, but there were lots of  lapses the entire game.

2. Ballhandling.  BC did some trapping in the halfcourt, which may have rushed Duke slightly as lots of players threw bad passes or just simply dropped passes aimed right at them.  Jason also made a number of ill-advised decisions.

3. Ball pressure.  BC's guards could really handle the ball, but Duke simply didn't put enough pressure on the ball to disrupt them and generate turnovers. Duke only had 8 steals on the game.

  Player-by-Player:

** Boozer:  A really solid game.  He knew that he would be able to attack the Eagles and he went right at them, scoring not just on dunks but on drives and leaners as well.  He went to work on the boards after a somewhat mediocre first half and was finally able to stop BC from getting so many second chance points.  Like Jason, he had a great offensive first half but let his team down defensively and on the boards.  In the second half, he did a much better job of defending BC's Agbai, challenging every jumper and blocking a couple of them.  He also attacked the boards, especially in Duke's big 11-0 run.  Carlos also showed off a bit of versatility, surprising the Eagles by driving all the way to the basket (they clearly weren't prepared for that) and sinking a jumper.  He also did a good job of keeping out of foul trouble in the second half after picking up 2 in the first.   More than the boards and points, Carlos was also diving on the floor looking for loose balls.  It's fantastic to see him develop as a defender, and  someone who is meshing with the other players as someone they can depend on defensively.  He's not a dominant defender yet, but he's definitely showing promise.  Also, he showed that he can adjust from half to half, because the same rebounds that were slipping out of his hands in the first half  were being corralled and locked in for the second.    

** Battier:  One runs out of words to describe him sometimes.  22 points, 7 boards, 4 blocks, 2 steals and some inspired defense.  There were several points where he dove to the floor and emerged with the basketball.  He was Duke's big gun in the first half, where he nailed 3 threes, dunked on a Boozer pass and hit a bunch of foul shots.  He was also blocking shots left and right and making life very difficult for BC on their end of the court. The only troubling thing was his turnover rate: one came on a charge as he awkwardly drove to the basket, and the other 2 were passes he just bobbled out of bounds.  He was a bit quieter offensively in the second half, not scoring at all during Duke's big run, but he hit a couple of threes that held the Eagles at arm's length.  Shane continued to step up his defense and was one of the players responsible for Troy Bell's miserable game.  Need I mention that Shane played all 40 minutes?

** Dunleavy: Concentrated on defense and rebounding in the first half, grabbing 7 boards and getting 2 steals.  Then he hunted his shot a bit in the second half, with a great degree of success.  In particular, he was slashing to the basket quite well, working with Jason to get some early scores.  He hit a big three that put Duke up by 13 and another jumper that kept Duke running smoothly late in the game.  His team-high 9 boards reflected that he was one of the few Devils who was getting proper position, but he made some amazing efforts to get rebounds.  His assists came on relocation passes for threes.  He also did a good job in transition defense, picking off a couple of BC passes while they were trying to run.  This wasn't  a dominant performance, but it was a solid one without many mistakes.    

** James: Nate had an up and down game.  An "up" included the very opening tip, where he flew out of bounds in order to save the ball.  A down included him trying to break down the defense with dribble penetration at the top of the key, and twice losing control of the ball.  That simply isn't his game.  While he did his usual good job on defense, grabbing 3 steals (a  couple on deflected passes coming into the post) and taking a charge, he made some poor decisions on offense and didn't hit the boards the way he usually does.  His three point play early in the second half really took the wind out of BC's sails because it was so odd.  Nate also had a nice relocation pass for a Battier three.  But with his turnovers leading to BC scores and his general lack of production in comparison to recent games, this was Nate's worst game in some time.  And even then, there were some positives.

** Williams:  The standards for judging one of his performances has really changed.  In the first half, he had 13 points on 5-10 shooting and 2 assists.  But it was a bad half because his defense was lackluster and he turned the ball over for no reason at all.  The bar being raised, he broke out with a second half for the ages.  21 points, 7 assists and just 2 turnovers. Not to mention 3 rebounds and some tremendous harrassing defense.  With Nate having a bad game, Mike not looking to shoot much and Shane concentrating on defense and rebounding, Jason took it upon himself to carry the team-- and he did.  His 4 first half turnovers were simply careless errors--trying to go behind his back and losing control, trying to crossover someone and having the ball slip out of his hands, and just passing it to no one in particular at times.  And while he was nailing threes and getting baskets to drop despite driving into 1-on-3 situations, he wasn't creating much for his teammates.  That all changed in the second half when he took over the leadership of the team and led the defensive charge.  It started with him sinking a jumper on the run, but it kicked into high gear when he had two unbelievable passes to Dunleavy and Boozer, and made Bell's life hell for the rest of the game.  Bell only hit 1 field goal in the entire second half, a falling-away three that was tough to defend.  Otherwise, he missed shot after shot as he either wasn't allowed to get near the basket or  allowed to drive but rejected at the last second.  Meanwhile, Jason was dishing once again to Dunleavy (for a three) and Boozer (for a turnaround), and then took matters into his own hands by driving to the basket again and again, either scoring or getting fouled.  Jason hit a huge momentum basket when he sank a three with eight minutes left, derailing BC's 6-0 run and ending any comeback scenarios.  Down the stretch, he drove once for a score and found Boozer for another.  Then there was the unpleasant business at the end.  All told, Jason should have just ignored the punkish behavior of Walls and BC's trash-talking and taken the high ground.  But I can also understand the urge to get in a final word after a dominating finish that still didn't shut up his opponents.  I doubt it will happen again.     

** Duhon: Is still avoiding his shot like it causes him physical pain to make a flinging motion with his arm, and was very weak with the ball a couple of times.  On the other hand, he played some utterly superb defense and had some passes that defy description.  His touch pass to Battier deserves to make every highlight reel.  His flick to Boozer for a dunk was unreal and demoralizing to BC.  His play with six minutes left finished BC off, finding Williams and Boozer and hitting 2 free throws of his own, as well as soon afterwards hitting Boozer for a jumper.  I'll take his offensive struggles if he can continue to defend so well and set up his teammates.  Chris hurt his hip in the game but continued to play; hopefully he'll be healthy for Saturday's tilt against Georgia Tech.   

** Christensen: Played 8 big minutes in the first half when Boozer picked up 2 fouls, which kept Carlos fresh and free of foul trouble in the second. Both of his rebounds were big and his turnaround leaner after a Williams feed pumped up the team.  On the other hand, he missed a defensive assignment after the team slapped the floor and left his man open for a jumper, which displeased Coach K.  He stuck his big hand in front of a pass and created a turnover as well.  For Matt, the numbers don't really matter.  As long as he doesn't turn the ball over (which he did once when he charged into a defender), makes sure to set good picks and block out, he's doing his job.

** Cameron Craziness: Due to sorority rush, this was a decidely testosterone- laden crowd.  While there were gaps in the corners and the crowd was a bit quiet in the first half, they came on strong in the second half.  Before the half even began, they were chanting "Our house! Our house!" and went nuts when the team slapped the floor.  EVERY time they slapped the floor. There were a few player specific cheers, like "The monster is out of the cage" for Matt when he scored, and "J-will, J-will rock you" for Jason. The fans also chanted, "guilty, guilty" for Kenny Harley, who was charged in a barroom brawl recently and even acted out the incident before the game.   

** Next Game: Saturday the 20th at noon against a revitalized Georgia Tech team.  Even though they lost against a desperate NCSU team, they are to be taken seriously.  Alvin Jones is the kind of shotblocker who could give Duke trouble, and they love to run.  Duke will need to have its perimeter defense performing at a high level to contain Tech's shooters.    

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

Rob's Archive