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Duke 82 |
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I think it's instructive to compare Duke's road games
against Wake Forest and Virginia--the former, a close win and the latter,
a close loss. The thing that
stands out the most to me is that all three teams played some truly
outstanding basketball throughout. Sure,
Duke had problems in both games, especially in the Virginia loss.
But as players like Carlos Boozer were shackled, players like Chris
Duhon took up his slack magnificently. Against Wake, Duke simply couldn't
force turnovers to get easy shots or many open jumpers, but they
compensated with strong rebounding and a willingness
to take what Wake was giving them (ie, passing opportunities to the post).
And like in any outstanding college basketball game, it came down
to who had the ball last. As
a fan, you simply couldn't ask for anything more.
I've seen better Duke teams lose to worse Wake teams on the road,
so it's a credit to this year's squad that they took a talented Wake
squad's best shot imaginable and came out with a win.
All things considered,
this was the most exciting, dramatic and well-played game I've seen in the
ACC this year, with the exception of the sloppy officiating that put a
number of the players in danger. And if Duhon still didn't consider himself worthy of
taking over games like the rest of his teammates can, perhaps that's
finally worn off now. He actually wasn't performing the way he had in the
last few games, but made a number of absolutely plays that proved to be
difference-makers. Truly, Wake did not lose this game--Duke won.
The Deacs, who are less talented overall than Duke but are much
deeper, got big plays from nearly everyone who stepped on the court for
them. It was Senior Day in
Winston- Salem, and seniors Rafael Vidaurreta, Robert O'Kelley and Josh
Shoemaker all had their moments. Vidaurreta
in fact had the game of his life, with 11 points, 12 rebounds (8
offensive!) and 2 blocks. ROK
snapped out of a slump with 17 points, 3 assists, excellent defense and a
game-tying three. You knew that the Deacs were going to be trouble when
Shoemaker and Antwan Scott hit very rare three pointers.
This was going to be a 40 minute war, which will only help both
teams come NCAA tournament time. And
I fully expect Wake to be in that tournament. Most of the first half was controlled by Wake Forest.
Duke showed early on that they were going to make an effort to get
the ball to Carlos Boozer. Wake packed it in on him last time, only to be
blitzed by Duke's three point bomb squad.
Coach K suspected that Wake coach Dave Odom might change tactics,
and he was correct. Carlos
and Wojo did some extra film study for this game, concentrating on getting
under Wake's defense and being in position to receive the sort of passes
that they thought might be available.
You could see that right away in the game, as Jason lobbed the ball
over Vidaurreta and Songaila, leading Carlos right to the basket for easy
buckets. This was what Boozer
was doing early in the year before Duke's opponents decided to concentrate
on shutting down Duke's post game. Carlos
scored the first 4 points of the game before Jason gave Duke a 7-6 lead
with a three. Wake took the
lead back on the next play, but Mike Dunleavy found Shane Battier open for
a three. After Duke took a
14-10 lead on a Nate James stickback, the Deacs went on a 7-0 run to pull
ahead with eleven minutes left in the half.
Dunleavy took over for a few minutes, keeping Duke
close. He pulled up for a
tough 15 footer, hit 2 foul shots, and then canned a three to tie things
up at 21. A Williams three
made it a 24-all tie before Wake went on a 5-0 run to get their biggest
lead with eight minutes left in the half. When Duke played at Maryland,
this is the point of the half where they broke down a bit, but this time
they wouldn't quite allow that to happen.
Jason swooped in for a three point play to bring Duke within 2, but
Wake went on another 5-0 run to get a 34-27 lead.
Wake was playing excellent defense and forcing some Duke
turnovers--including 4 on Williams and 3 on James. Of course, Wake got one
of those points from a technical foul called on Coach K after he berated
an official for not calling an obvious foul on a Wake player who tripped
Mike Dunleavy. Boozer and
Vidaurreta were tossing people around all day and not getting called for
it, while Songaila of Wake was getting called for touch fouls.
Jason Williams was kicked hard in the leg and suffered a nasty calf
bruise that looked much more serious than it turned out to be. Duke wasn't down for long, with Dunleavy going over the
top to find Boozer and Battier hitting another long three. The Deacs kept Duke at arm's length, holding Duke at 38-34
with three minutes left in the half.
Jason Williams sank a three to bring Duke to within 1 point, and
then Williams passed to Duhon in the left corner.
Chris faked a three, went baseline, elevated and threw down a
strong dunk to fire up himself and his teammates.
Duke was suddenly in front again 39-38.
Wake came back to take the lead with around thirty seconds left in
the half. With Jason on the
bench because of his injury, Duhon split the defense and found James
driving to the basket, and his layup fell in just as the clock ran out.
Duke had an extremely hard-fought 41-40 lead. Duke started the second half off with a bang as Boozer
got an offensive rebound and pitched it to Dunleavy for a three.
But Wake scored 5 in a row to take a 45-44 lead, only to have
Battier snatch it back with a three and 2 foul shots.
Just when it looked like Duke was going to take control of the
game, Wake went on a 10-0 run that featured a couple of threes. Down
55-49, Battier passed to Boozer for a three point play, and Duhon hit 2
big foul shots to bring Duke within 1.
The two teams traded baskets for a bit, with Wake hitting a three
after Dunleavy found Boozer for a dunk. The Deacons led 60-56 with twelve
minutes left and the game was more physical than ever.
Duhon got whacked in the head by accident and went to the bench for
a few minutes. Duke still
wasn't able to force many turnovers on the Deacons, but they had cut down
on their own as well. Battier threw another pass over the top to Boozer to
bring Duke within 2, and then Williams went to work, bum leg and all.
He drove right past the defense and then hit a runner after Wake
hit a three. After Wake hit
yet another three, he lobbed one into Boozer who caught it and scored.
Duke was playing with great efficiency, but the Deacs were
absolutely on fire. Still, that last basket brought Duke to within 66-64
with eight minutes left. Wake had a chance to go up big with some free
throws, but missed a couple and only had a 70-64 lead with seven minutes
left. Battier drove and hit a
short jumper to narrow that margin a bit. But the Deacons went on a 5-0 run, capped off by a deep
Dawson three from the corner that gave Wake a big 75-66 lead with only
nine minutes left. The crowd
was smelling upset but Duke didn't panic. Nate James shot an airball three that was caught by
Boozer and tossed in for 2. That
was a huge play, as it broke a nearly two-minute drought for Duke. Duke got a stop and Jason stepped up to sink a three to cut
the lead to 4, but Wake scored to make it 77-71 with three minutes left.
Dunleavy drove and dished to Jason in the right corner, who calmly
sank another three to make it a 3 point game.
After another stop, Boozer cleared out Vidaurreta and took a great
Battier pass, dunking it over Vidauretta with two hands and getting the
foul. Carlos sank the foul
shot to tie up the game. Wake
made a critical error as Broderick Hicks did not get the ball past the 10
second line in time, partially because Odom had delayed him a bit in
relaying instructions. Josh
Howard then fouled out trying to get a steal from Dunleavy, who went to
the line for two shots. He
airballed the first but sank the second to give Duke a 78-77 lead with a
minute left. Dunleavy then
came up with a rebound after a Duke stop, and the ball went to Williams.
With under ten seconds on the shot clock, Jason beat O'Kelley and
hit a soft floater to give Duke a 3 point lead with about fifteen seconds
left in the game. After a clock controversy where it was discovered that
the game clock had stopped for about five seconds while the shot clock
kept running, Wake ran a play. O'Kelley
wanted the ball and got it behind a solid screen and buried a 23' jumper,
tying the game at 80. Duke
had no timeouts and usually prefers to just inbound anyway if they have a
decent amount of time left. With
seven seconds left, Jason zoomed downcourt, hoping to have an open lane to
the basket. Instead,
he met O'Kelley in the lane. For
a second, it looked as though Jason was going to take a tough shot anyway,
but he spotted Duhon and passed off to him.
Chris faked a shot and froze Hicks, drove by him and took a runner
off his left foot while he shot with his right hand.
Running away from the basket, the ball dropped through with no time
left and the team was ecstatic. The
Slidell Sniper had notched his first game-winning shot at Duke. This was an NCAA tournament-quality win for Duke where
both teams played at a very high level.
Playing from behind most of the game, Duke didn't panic and stuck
with their game plan. Wake
didn't have a lot of height and Songaila's foul trouble helped Duke's
cause, but it was still heartening to see Boozer play so well.
He has two enormous challenges remaining against UNC and Maryland,
two teams that shut him down in their first meetings. **
Negatives: 1.
Turnovers. A
number of them were unforced--palming calls, charges, stepping on the
sideline, etc. 2.
Blocking out. Wake had 15
offensive rebounds, including a spectacular putback jam by Josh Howard
that no one blocked out on. **
Positives: 1.
Rebounding. Despite not
blocking out, Duke got all the key rebounds down the stretch, as Boozer
and Dunleavy took over. And
Carlos was big on the offensive boards as well, getting a key stickback
when Duke went down 9 with five minutes left. 2.
Post play. Boozer was
superb all the way through and drew a number of fouls.
Battier and Sanders had some key blocks.
3.
Foul shooting. Feels
great to put this down in the "positives" section for once.
Special kudos to Mike Dunleavy, who airballed one attempt at the
end of the game but settled down to sink the second one. Compare this to the Stanford game, where he was unable to
relax enough to make a second foul shot towards the end after missing the
first. Player-by-Player: **
Boozer: Preparation + Opportunity = Success.
Carlos was ready for a big game because he knew Wake would cover
Duke's shooters tightly, while Duke's players looked to him as much as
possible. 6 offensive rebounds and just 1 turnover show just how
focused he was. He was
especially dominant in the second half, notching 14 points and 9 rebounds
as well as blocking a shot. He was 9-13 from the field and completed a
couple of three point plays. The way the refs called the game benefitted
him more than any other player, because he got away with a couple of
shoves, although he certainly took his share of punishment as well.
But staying out of foul trouble and staying fresh because of his
help from Sanders were 2 big keys. With
the NCAA tournament usually being a physical affair, it was good to see
him absorbing contact and dishing out some punishment of his own.
**
Battier:
A solid, but not dominant game.
As he said afterwards, everyone
recognized that Boozer was the horse in this game and worked to get it to
him. To that end, Shane had 5
assists, with 3 of them to Carlos. This was really the stat of the night
for Shane, who didn't force his own shot but rather played team ball.
He came up with a big block down the stretch and also had 4
offensive rebounds. Wake was
concentrating on shutting him down as much as possible and he still came
up with 15 points. Since Shane just moved ahead of Bobby Hurley in the
all-time scoring list at Duke, I thought I'd provide the latest... Shane
Battier Senior StatWatch (TM): 2/24 Points: 13.
Bob Verga
1758 Three
Point Field Goals: 3.
Jeff Capel
220 Threes
Attempted: 4.
Chris Collins
539 Blocks: 1.
Mike Gminski
345 Steals: 1.
Tommy Amaker
259 Rebounds: 12.
Bob Fleischer
817 **
Dunleavy: A strong all-around game with 11 points, 6 boards (including
a crucial one towards the end of the game), and 4 assists.
Played some solid defense against much bigger players and didn't
back down. All of his field
goals were jumpers since Wake did such a good job in containing Duke's
fast break (which helped Duke win the rebounding battle).
He had 2 assists into Boozer and 1 apiece to Battier and Williams
for three. He scored 7 in a row midway through the first half during a
period where Duke was having trouble scoring otherwise.
**
James: Not one of Nate's better games.
The usually reliable shooter had 3 airballs.
He also uncharacteristically missed the front end of a one-and-one.
On the other hand, he made up for it with 7 rebounds and a crucial basket
at the end of the first half.
**
Williams: Playing on a bad leg, Jason came up with awesome play after
awesome play down the stretch. And
he wasn't playing badly in the first half either.
He nailed 3 threes, got a three point play and scored on another
drive. O'Kelley did beat him
a couple of times on drives, but Jason torched him more often than not. It was actually a pretty exciting duel between the two of
them, with Jason's ability to break down a defense allowing him to get the
best of the encounter. Jason
scored all 12 of his second half points in the last ten minutes and got 2
assists as well. His three to
bring Duke within 4 and then another three to bring Duke within 3 were
absolutely clutch. His
floater with less than thirty seconds left simply killed Wake, making them
come up with a huge play to match it.
And his best decision of all came when he trusted Chris to not only
beat his man but to get off a good shot at the end.
This certainly puts the lie to those who say Jason isn't willing to
let others win the game.
Speaking of Jason's assists... Williams
Career Assist Watch: (2/24) 9.
Jim Spanarkel 399 And while I'm at it: Williams-James
Scoring Update (2/24): Since
both players have cracked 1000 points in their careers, I thought I'd
watch their rise through the scoring ranks: 39.
Chris Collins
1091 **
Sanders: Casey's stats were extremely modest, yet his ten minutes
helped keep Boozer fresh. He
played some solid defense and came up with 2 big blocks, one of which
fueled a Duke break. Knowing
that his hard work is paying off and that he's now a regular part of the
team is helping him out quite a bit.
He's no longer pressing to make a big play and instead picking up a
foul. Rather, he's going with
the flow, buying time for others, and making plays when they're there.
He can do a lot more, but that will come with time. **
Duhon: The first half featured some typical Duhon play--lots of
passing (assists to Williams x 2, Battier and James) but very little
shooting. He really didn't
have any open looks, but it was nice to see him throw down a dunk after
clanking jams earlier in the year. In the second half, he was doing most of his work on the
boards, snagging long rebounds. Despite
not taking a lot of shots, he made a number of good decisions on the last
one, using as much clock as possible and remembering that he didn't have
time to launch a jumper, so he used a one-handed runner.
One senses that he knew the shot was good before it even went down
from the way he ran away from the basket--reminiscient
of Laettner running away after the Kentucky game in 1992. Next Game: Tuesday, February 27th vs Maryland. The rematch of the stunning comeback in College Park sees the Terps playing well after freefalling. Their nadir was a loss to Florida State that earned them the boos of their own fans, but beating Wake Forest and Oklahoma has helped their confidence. The same squad beat Duke in Cameron last year, and they're motivated by needing every win they can get for an NCAA bid. They're on the bubble right now and are trying to avoid slipping below a third seed in the ACC tournament as well. The Terps are deep, athletic, big and match up very well with Duke. It will take a strong defensive effort on Juan Dixon, a locking up of Steve Blake and preventing easy baskets from Lonnie Baxter to get the win. Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu |
| Rob is a thirty one year old Duke grad who's been an ACC fan since he was nine years old, when a young Duke team was beaten in the finals by Kentucky. Since that time, he has been fascinated by the entire league and started writing volumes on it in rec.sport.basketball.college and other electronic forums in 1991. Recently, he has been writing ACC analyses for Jazzy J's colbasketball.miningco.com site and regularly contributes features on women's basketball for the Duke Basketball Report. |