Duke 90
Wake Forest 61

February 21, 2002.  

Lawrence Joel Coliseum

   Everyone was expecting Duke to bounce back after a disheartening loss to Maryland.  Nearly everyone thought Wake Forest would be a brutal test after the way they dismantled Virginia and took Duke to a buzzer-beater finish last year in LJVC.  No one knew what sort of impact not having Josh Howard available to play would have.  The result was a contest that was not unlike Duke's game against Virginia from last year in Cameron: a red hot team playing against a squad that could not hit anything.  The first nine or so minutes of this game were quite close and exciting as Wake was matching Duke's outside shooting with a couple of threes of their own, some foul shots and some dribble penetration.  Then came 11 minutes of futility, where Wake's only points came from the free throw line, and that was only 10 of them to Duke's 27.  An all-out attack to start the second half  squelched any thought of a comeback, and the rest of a game was an exercise in stat padding.

   There was a crispness to Duke's offensive attack that simply wasn't there against Maryland.  While the Devils did have 21 turnovers, a number of these came on just-missed completions of great passes when Duke had a huge lead.  3 others came on offensive fouls.  But the 22 assists that accounted for 36 field goals tells the tale here as all of the players sought each other out.  The one-on-one play seen against the Terps disappeared as  Duke made an effort to run and find the open man.  All of this went on as Duke was dealing with a preponderance of fouls being whistled against them that made Coach K juggle the lineup a bit.  If it wasn't for Wake's 30 free throw attempts, the game would have been much, much uglier--and it was already no pageant winner.

   The game started with Duhon hitting a runner in the lane, countered by Wake star Darius Songaila scoring inside.  Dunleavy drove and hit Jones for a 15' jumper, but Wake took the lead on a Broderick Hicks drive after Duke missed a couple of shots near the basket.  Jason Williams promptly erased that lead with back-to-back threes.  Boozer got him the assist on the first with a relocation pass and a Boozer rebound started the second play, with Jones getting the assist to J-Will.  Wake fought back right away, blocking a Williams shot on their way to scoring 5 straight to make it 10-up with four minutes gone by.

   Duke scored 5 in a row themselves with a Williams drive and Duhon spotting Dunleavy for a three.  It was a good sign that both Williams and Dunleavy were hitting open shots, because early misses against Maryland seemed to throw the entire team off.  Wake hung in there over the next three minutes but could never quite tie things up again.  They had a chance when Hicks hit a short shot and Nick Horvath was called for an offensive foul, but Songaila travelled.  Duke took advantage of Wake playing things a bit tight by going to the basket and getting fouled, and the Devils converted with 4 straight free throws to go up 19-14.  Jones stole the ball on Wake's next possession and Dan Ewing followed up his miss to extend Duke's lead, but Taron Downey hit a three to make it 21-17 with eleven minutes left. This is when Wake's long descent into Brickville began.

   In the last eleven minutes of the half, Wake missed 10 shots and turned the ball over 10 times (including 4 in a row at one point).  They were saved by 10-14 foul shooting, if you want to call a 19-point halftime deficit "saved".  Duke quickly jumped on Wake with a 9-0 run before the Deacs hit a couple of freebies.  That run included Williams finding Jones         for a three, a Dunleavy steal and dunk, Dunleavy getting another steal and triggering a break where Boozer flew in for a dunk, and Boozer outletting a rebound and starting another break where Jones finished.  Wake was drawing the fouls and making Duke scramble a bit, which disrupted Duke's offense for a couple of minutes.  With their foul shots, Wake actually cut the lead  to 30-19 at the eight minute mark.  A nice entry feed from Ewing to Boozer  for an easy dunk got things back on track as Duke went on a 6-0 run.  Dunleavy hit a jumper while Ewing found Williams on a cut to make it 36-19.

   In the last five minutes, Duke was having problems scoring.  The Devils missed 5 shots in a row and the front end of a one-and-one, but managed to score off Williams and Ewing drives to keep their lead near 20.  The Deacs were going to the line practically every time but had trouble  converting both ends.  With less than a minute left in the half, Duhon found Williams for a three that gave Duke a 45-25 lead.  Wake finally got a field goal on a Jamal Levy stickback, and Williams turned it over with 11 seconds to go in the half.  Songaila was fouled and hit both with just 3 seconds left, and Wake had a little momentum going into the half, cutting the lead to 16.  Or did they?  Duke inbounded, Dunleavy wound his way to midcourt and fired up a confident shot that was nothing but net--no backboard, not banking, just a pure shot.  Wake was understandably deflated and  Duke carried their high energy into the second half.

   After Songaila stuck back an offensive rebound to start the second half, Duke ran off 6 points in a row, with Boozer scoring twice and Duhon finding Dunleavy in transition.  That put Duke up 54-31 and made the next few minutes a struggle for Wake.  They were able to trade baskets with Duke, although Dunleavy hit a couple of threes to push the lead to 59-35 with sixteen minutes to go in the half.  Duke played with an incredible amount of energy, with Dunleavy tipping a miss back to Jason for a three and then Jason stepping in front of a pass for a steal and runout.  That put Duke up 67-40 and took away any hope Wake still had.

   The Deacs did show some pride, going on a 5-0 run thanks to 3 Duke turnovers.  But Duhon ended that with a three and Jones scored 4 in a row to make it 76-48 with under ten minutes left.  Duke went into their 2-3 motion delay game, and the result was Mike Dunleavy going absolutely bananas.  He hit 4 shots in a row, with a couple of them threes.  For the game, Duke shot 52% from long range, absolutely burying the Deacs. The starters came out with about four minutes left, and Wake promptly went on an 8-2 run to close out the game, but all of that only closed the final gap to 29. 

   It's hard to tell what to make of this game.  I was astonished at how badly Wake played.  Certainly, Duke made a lot of great defensive plays, but the Deacs simply couldn't hit anything.  But what the other team is doing is less important than what Duke is doing, and the Devils pretty much did everything right.  The key is to make sure the attitude of togetherness and the atmosphere of fun is carried over to Duke's next game, and the game after.

  ** Negatives:  

1. Turnovers.  21 is just way too many, especially since Wake forced just 6 steals.  Duhon in particular had a few careless passes, and Boozer bobbled a ball or two himself.  It didn't prove to be a factor in this game, but the contest against Maryland shows that it can be.  

2. Fouls.  Duke put Wake on the line rather early in the first half, and their 16 team fouls in the half is the most I can recall in quite some time.  This hurt Duke for obvious reasons in that it let Wake get some cheap points, but also because it made the game's pace much choppier.  When Duke backed off in the second half, they blew Wake out when the Deacs couldn't handle a more rhythmic running attack.  

3. Blocking out.  Wake had 14 offensive rebounds, though when shooting 33% for the game this isn't a huge surprise.  Duke was looking to initiate their fast break against the Deacs and they gave up a few boards as a  result.  

  ** Positive:  

1. Ball movement.  At times, this is one of the best passing teams in Duke history.  They really showed it in this game with Duhon and Williams notching 8 assists apiece, but Boozer, Jones and Ewing all did a fine job in moving the ball aorund.  

2. Ball pressure.  Duke forced talented-but-flaky Wake forward Songaila into an amazing 8 turnovers.  Considering how tough he is to guard, this was Duke's best strategy--don't let him get set up with the ball.  The Devils also forced frosh point guard Taron Downey into 4 turnovers.  

3. Cohesiveness.  In addition to playing like a unit on offense, Duke's help defense was superb, especially in defending the post.  They also limited penetration and switched wonderfully on the perimeter.       

    Player-by-Player:  

  ** Boozer: Carlos' foul trouble limited some of his effectiveness as he sat out for long stretches of time.  This didn't stop him from doing a great job on the boards, however, or taking good shots.  "Good shot" in this instance means 3 dunks on great passes, and a post-up move on a Duhon feed.  He would have had a few more shots if it weren't for the turnovers and Wake playing him tight.  But that's not important--what's important is that he came out and cleared the boards, preventing Wake from getting second chances since they were missing so many shots.  Duke actually held an overall rebounding advantage for the game and the big reason why is Boozer.  Carlos also played pretty good defense on Songaila, making him  shoot from a bit farther out than in the last game, when he pretty much scored at will against 'los.    

  ** Dunleavy:  I really enjoyed Mike's reasoning on why he had such a good second half from the field.  He said that by making that half court shot (and it was a shot, not a fling), it only made sense that he should be able to hit his other shots, since they were much closer.  While Mike's second- half blitz of 18 points was not crucial to Duke's win, it did all but choke off any chance Wake might have had in coming back.  After all, the Deacs came back from 11 down with a minute left to send the game into OT against  Clemson--why not here?  Mike D's 10 straight points over a three minute span late in the game were a definitive reason why not.  In the first half, Mike scored on a runout and a couple of threes, along with a short jumper off an inbounds play.  After a transition bucket at the start of the second half and a couple of more threes, there reached a certain point where he could do no wrong.  It wasn't just that he scored 10 straight points, it was that everyone knew they were going in.  There was one point where he pulled up from about 35' feet away after having made 4 shots in a row, and the crowd urged him to shoot.  The image of a screaming Coach K made him think better of it, but I don't think anyone would have been surprised if it had gone in.  His best play of the half came after a Jones missed three.  In one motion, Mike got the ball and tipped it straight to Jason for a three.  It was as heads-up a play as I've ever seen.  I addition to all this, Mike also had a couple of blocked shots and 9 rebounds, truly stuffing his stat sheet.    

  ** Jones: A quiet, but effective, game for Dahntay.  His early jumper made Wake abandon any thoughts of sagging off on him, while his three and fast break finish were central to Duke's first big run that gave them a  comfortable margin of victory.  He was guarding three point specialist Craig Dawson for much of the game, and he wound up with 7 points on 3-8 shooting--and 0-4 from three.  Another defensive mission accomplished for Mr. Jones.  He scored consecutive baskets in the second half as Duke stretched its lead to 30 with ten minutes left, both times off drives. With Wake not doubling up on Williams and Dunleavy, Dahntay simply didn't have as many open looks, but he was patient and made his attempts count when he got them.  

  ** Williams:  Jason rarely has two bad games in a row, especially from the field.  When he hit back-to-back threes early in the game, I knew that it was going to be a long night for Wake.  Jason was focused and all of Wake's pushing didn't distract him a bit--even when Songaila flattened him a couple of times.  He was a lot less interested in scoring in the second half, but still had an early flurry where he scored 7 points in two minutes. A typically dominant performance from one of the best players in the country. Jason was making Duke's two point guard-attack work well as he energized a number of breaks, dishing to Boozer for an easy one.  His ability to drive kept Wake off-guard as he sometimes went all the way to the basket and then switched up by dishing to Boozer for a dunk.  He also found Jones twice for baskets and hit Duhon for his only three of the game.  Breaking down his own offensive performance, he had 4 threes, all of which were set up by passes from others; 3 drives; a steal and runout; and a reverse on a cut.  As lethal a player as Jason is, he's even better when his teammates are setting him up.  Jason swishing both free throws shows that he was completely focused on this game.  As bad as he played against Maryland (though he did score 17), Jason has always been a brilliant "next play, next game" kind of player.  He simply moves on to the next challenge and tries to make an impact.       

  ** Duhon: Chris was up and down as he has been of late.  He opened the game with a nice drive but mostly stayed out of the lane.  Chris kept the break running though misfired on a few attempted connections.  He found Jones and Dunleavy on fast breaks, hit Williams and Dunleavy for threes, passed to Jones on an inbounds play and had a great dish to Dunleavy on a give-and-go.  Chris only hit 1 three, but he didn't take a whole lot of shots in general.  He did his job and perhaps tried a bit too hard at times to make the most spectacular pass possible, but he kept things flowing.  

  ** Ewing: Dan continues to not only improve with each game, but make a bigger overall impact on the game.  The most important thing he contributes is energy, because the starters have to conserve it sometimes, especially on offense.  Dan comes in like a maniac and dives after loose balls and rebounds.  The stats don't show a big splash--6 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist-- but all of them were important.  The starters know that he can contribute and he's playing more and more as though he's one of them.  He scored on a stickback, a drive and 2 smooth free throws, and had a superb entry pass to Boozer for a score and a nice pass to Williams on a cut.  He was one of the players who helped hold Wake's guards to 10-32 shooting.  

  ** Horvath: Nick is getting the minutes but not much in the way of results, and picking up 3 fouls in the first half didn't help matters any.  He's actually playing decent help defense (which is why I suspect he's in there in the first place) but is helpless against good post players or those who take the ball hard to the basket.  His block and steal were both solid, heads-up plays, but he had no answers for Songaila, Scott or Danelius.  Duke really needs someone to step up as a post reserve and Nick is certainly getting his chances--though I imagine if Sanders and Love stay hungry they can steal some minutes.    

  ** Sanders: When Horvath picked up his third foul and Boozer was sitting on the bench with 2, Casey came in...and promptly picked up 3 fouls of his own. On the other hand, he did have a couple of rebounds.  I'm hoping that Casey gets some more playing time in the next game or two, because I have a hunch Duke will need some spot minutes from him in the ACC tournament.  

      Reported by Rob Clough, tmc@duke.edu

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