Virginia 91
Duke 89
February 14, 2001
University Hall, Charlottesville, VA 

     The Virginia Cavaliers cooked up the same formula that Stanford and  UNC used so effectively to beat Duke.  They smothered Duke's inside game by tightly playing Carlos Boozer and made things easier for themselves by getting him in foul trouble.  The Cavs cut off Duke's penetration and forced some ill-advised threes.  They used offensive rebounding as one of their main weapons and had it offset turnovers forced by Duke's defense.  And they got some cooperation from Duke, who again were below average from the line.  Combine that with pinning a big 91 points on Duke's defense, and the result was a very close victory, one that will almost certainly propel them into the NCAA tournament.

   It's hard to overemphasize just how well the Cavs played and how many smart moves Pete Gillen made.  While they were fortunate to remove Mike Dunleavy from the game for so many minutes because of foul trouble, there was no way to anticipate that Chris Duhon would choose this game for his offensive coming-out party.  The rook exploded for 20 points on 7-8 shooting, including 5-6 from three.  But it was their hounding of Jason Williams into a 5-21 shooting night that was the true difference, because he's Duke offensive catalyst.  When Jason is making the key one-on-one plays, it means the rest of the team will benefit as the other team adjusts to him. But with athletic, long-armed Adam Hall staying in front of him, Jason was forcing shots and passes.  And the Cavs went right at him on offense, penetrating for some easy baskets.

   Duke's scoring started with an absurd 25' three from Jason, but he would only hit one more three in the game.  After James followed up with a three of his own, things looked good for Duke.  But the Cavs came back and the teams exchanged the lead for a bit until Duhon came into the game.  A Battier steal led to an easy layup for Chris, and then Chris picked Donald Hand clean for a steal and layup.  Still, Duke only had a narrow 16-13 lead.  Virginia then went on a run but couldn't pull away from Duke, and a Battier three with twelve minutes left knotted the score at 20 apiece. Williams broke through with a pass to Boozer for a dunk and Battier hit a fadeaway, but the Cavs answered each time.  Finally, back-to-back Battier threes gave Duke a 30-28 lead.  Williams threaded the needle for a fantastic full court pass to James for an easy dunk, and Duke had a 4 point lead. 

   But the Cavs came back with a 6-0 run, shrugged off a James three, and went on an 11-2 run of their own.  Without Boozer and Duleavy in the game, the Devils were virtually helpless on the boards and the Cavs were able to clean up again and again.  Meanwhile, they were frustrating Jason into a horrible game; he shot just 1-9 in the first half.  Duke didn't wilt, however, and scored 5 straight points to cut the deficit to 45-42.  Williams passed to Battier for a score and Duhon got a steal and found Nate James in transition.  Virginia led 46-42 at the half, but Duke had blunted some of the Hoos' momentum.

   Duke tied things up rather quickly thanks to a Battier pull-up jumper and a Williams drive, but the Hoos struck again to take a 54-48 lead with about seventeen minutes left.  Then someone flipped Duhon's "on" switched, and the shooter from Slidell swished back to back threes to trigger an 11-0 run.   Duhon even got an assist on the third three of the run, a pass to Jason. Nate got a rebound basket to cap things off, and Duke led 61-55.  Virginia stormed right back to pull within 1, but Duhon broke off another three to give Duke a 64-60 lead with thirteen minutes left.

   The two teams then traded baskets for a bit, with Shane hitting a baseline jumper and Williams finding Sanders in transition, but a three by poor-shooting Stephane DonDon gave Virginia a 69-68 lead with ten minutes left.  The Cavs turned it on, taking a 73-68 lead to cap a 9-0 run, but Duke responded with a 7-0 run of their own to take a 75-73 lead.  Dunleavy pulled the trigger for a three and Duhon swished another trey.  The teams then traded leads on five consecutive possessions, with Boozer scoring on a drive and Duhon sinking his fifth three of the game, but a 5-0 run by Virginia gave then an 83-80 lead with four minutes to go.

   Duke just couldn't stop the efficient Cav offense, but a couple of Williams drives brought Duke to within 88-86 with 1:10 left.  Williams hit 1 free throw to make it 89-87, and then Duke got the ball back and  Battier was fouled with fourteen seconds left.  He hit both, and then Roger Mason picked up a loose ball and dropped it in for a 91-89 lead with just .9 seconds left.  The ensuing inbounds play was intercepted, and Virginia had won.

   I must emphasize that Duke didn't lose this game, Virginia won it.  They had a great gameplan and executed it well.  Moreover, they responded well when Duke went on their scoring jags, responding in kind.  While Virginia doesn't have the kind of post game that usually gives Duke problems, their attention to offense rebounding combined with their rare ability to score gave them the tools necessary to beat Duke.  Several Duke players responded quite well, but not enough of them played well enough to shut down the Cavs when they needed to.

   ** Negatives:

   1. Rebounding.  A small child could have written the "negative" section this time around, really.  Giving up 16 offensive rebounds to another team won't cut it, especially when they were able to convert on so many. 

   2. Foul shooting.  The normally reliable Boozer and Williams combined for just 4-9 from the line.  Jason missed a couple of opportunities to tie up the game.

   3. Post play. Duke's three centers combined for 8 points, 6 rebounds and 6 fouls.  6-7 Travis Watson had a field day inside playing on a bum leg, though it helped that Boozer wasn't even there to guard him for much of the time.

   ** Positives:

   1. Shooting.  Battier, James and Duhon were really stroking it from the perimeter, and put a lot of pressure on the Cavs.  Unfortunately, Duke wasn't able to drive by them when they tightened up on the three point shooters down the stretch.

   2. Ball pressure.  Another big positive, as Duhon and Williams really made things tough for Donald Hand.  Virginia was forced into 17 turnovers.

    Player-by-Player:

   ** Boozer:  Carlos' 4 first half fouls pretty much ruined him for the rest of the game.  Even when he played in the second half, he was so tentative on defense that Virginia was able to score on him rather easily.  With his rhythm disrupted, he missed several easy shots, though he did get a dunk and a drive.  Worse, he bricked a couple of free throws.  While he got 5 rebounds, Travis Watson outworked him a couple of times for offensive boards, including a nasty rebound dunk.  It's a vicious cycle with Carlos-- when he gets in early foul trouble, he loses confidence.  When he loses confidence, he doesn't work as hard to get into good position down low.  When he doesn't work as hard, his teammates are less likely to look to him as a primary option, which means that he loses even more confidence.  Like any great player, Carlos needs to learn how to play confidently with foul trouble and how to attack more physical players.  And that's really the key. Carlos has played fine against taller players, but it's the bruisers, the ones who give him a lot of contact, that tend to put him off his game.  And without Boozer as a viable option inside, it becomes much easier to defend Duke.

   ** Battier:  Shane was one of Duke's two big guns in the first half with 16 points, hitting 4 threes and getting a fadeaway to drop.  He was a lot quieter in the second half, and neither of his threes would fall.  He did diversify his offense a bit, driving and pulling up for a jumper and nailing a 15' baseline shot off a set play.  More importantly, he was 4-4 from the foul line, including 2 crucial ones with seconds left.  He took 2 charges and dug in for a couple of steals and blocks.  About the only thing he didn't do was stop Chris Williams.  Now, a lot of Williams' shots were mid-range jumpers that are difficult to defend, but he was a terror on the boards as well.  Shane was outrebounded 12-2 by his opposite number, and Shane's inability to help on the boards was a big factor in Duke's loss.  With Boozer and Dunleavy out of the way, all UVa had to do was concentrate on Battier and the boards were theirs...and this is exactly what happened.  This was one instance where Shane couldn't do it all alone, and the team sufferred as a result of other players not stepping up.  

   ** Dunleavy:  Mike got a big zero shots in the first half--that's how completely his three fouls hurt his game.  He did get an early assist to James on a three.  In the second half, he hit a big three to draw Duke within 2, but that was the extent of his contributions.  His foul trouble hurt his overall game, because he turned the ball over 4 times and played awful defense. His confidence was shaken a bit and his rhythm was certainly broken, and this made a big difference in Virginia's win.  

   ** James:  The old stalwart was Duke's other first half big gun, going off for 14 points.  He was getting them with threes, on tips-ins, in transition and via free throws.  He was a lot quieter in the second half, but hit a  floater when Virginia was in the middle of a huge run and got a tip-in to cap off a Duke run.  More importantly, he was hitting the boards hard, getting 5 in the half and leading Duke with 9 for the game.  He also found the hot shooter in Duhon.  Nothing less than a magnificent, warrior effort for Nate.

   ** Williams:  The struggles continue for Jason, as he simply didn't look comfortable out there at any point.  While he did score 5 of Duke's last 7 points, he didn't have his usual level of confidence out there.  UVa gave played him for the jumper and tried to prevent him from penetrating, and the strategy worked perfectly.  Despite that, Jason was superb in terms of his floor game, notching 9 assists and only 2 turnovers.  Virginia wisely chose not to press Duke, instead making an effort to get back quickly on defense to slow down Duke's potent transition game.  This meant that Jason was able to operate outside the line with being harrassed much, so he got 5 of his assists on players hitting threes.  Of course, he still burned UVa's defense a couple of times with jaw-dropping passes in transition, especially one to James and a dunk to Boozer.  His role as a point guard wasn't a problem here, it was his role as a scorer, and he simply never got into the kind of rhythm he wanted.  It showed in his foul shots, which looked tentative all the way.  Still, Jason is such a force of nature that a 14 point, 9 assist effort where he even took a charge is considered an "off" game.  Those 30 point efforts have really raised the bar as to what can be considered a great Williams game.

   ** Duhon: Chris had a very active first half.  He got a couple of easy layups on great defensive plays, dished twice to James for scores, and got very comfortable out there on both ends of the court.  But that didn't prepare me for the barrage that was to come.  He single-handedly brought Duke back into the game with his sweet, sweet stroke.  He shot threes right behind the line (not 25 feet from the basket like he often would) and in stride, not hesitating for a second.  Virginia had to blanket him to stop him in the second half.  Chris hit them in transition and on set plays, the best being one where he runs into the lane and pops out to the corner, where he is immediately fed the ball.  Duke runs that play for Jason all the time and it was nice to see it used for Chris.  Hopefully, Chris will be ready to shoot this way the rest of the year, because Duke can always use the offensive lift off the bench.  He almost carried Duke to a victory here. 

   ** Christensen: Matt had a brief appearance in the second half but fumbled away the one pass that came to him and also picked up a quick foul. 

   ** Sanders:  Casey had a nice basket in transition, but missed 2 free throws. He had 1 board but couldn't handle the beefier Watson.

   ** Love: Just came in very briefly.

Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu 

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