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Wake gets by Duke 70-68

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)—Everybody figured Wake Forest would ask star scorer Jeff Teague to take the shot that would knock off No. 1 Duke. That’s why coach Dino Gaudio instead drew up a play for the player whose defensive lapse let the Blue Devils tie it.

James Johnson made up for a horrible final minute on defense by hitting the layup with 0.8 seconds left that helped the sixth-ranked Demon Deacons upend Duke 70-68 on Wednesday night in a matchup of the two most recent top-ranked teams.

“We knew everybody was going to key on Jeff Teague—he’s the one who scores for us, puts buckets up for us,” Johnson said. “I finished the play.”

And, more importantly, the game. Johnson had 13 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (17-1, 4-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).They bounced back from last week’s home loss that knocked them from No. 1 by forcing the Blue Devils into their worst shooting night of the season and making a statement for a second chance at the top spot.

“Pittsburgh goes down, then we go down, then Duke—I mean, whoever’s No. 1, they’ve got a rude awakening,” Teague said.

Wake Forest led nearly the entire way, before letting a late 13-point lead slip away and recovering just in time to claim the fifth victory over a top-ranked team in school history.

Kyle Singler had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Duke (18-2, 5-1), which had its 10-game winning streak snapped.

“I didn’t think we had the aggressiveness or toughness that we’ve shown. Then, all of a sudden, we had so much of it, it was unbelievable,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our kids played so hard to put themselves in a position to win.”

Especially Gerald Henderson, who had 20 points—including a jumper over Johnson with 10 seconds left that tied it at 68 and capped the Blue Devils’ late 20-7 rally.

The Demon Deacons raced downcourt, with Teague and Aminu missing layups in traffic—but during the rebound, Henderson was called for traveling. That gave the ball back to Wake Forest with 2.6 seconds left, and L.D. Williams inbounded it under the basket to Johnson, whose layup in the final second banked through to the delight of a juiced-up crowd at Joel Coliseum.

Singler’s full-court inbounds pass for Henderson was tipped by Williams, and that sent Wake Forest’s tie-dye-clad student section spilling onto the court for the second time this month. They whooped it up in similar fashion 2 1/2 weeks ago when they knocked off then-No. 3 North Carolina.

Jon Scheyer had 13 points and David McClure finished with 12 rebounds for Duke, which was playing its first game as No. 1 since 2006 and wound up becoming the latest top-ranked team to fall in Winston-Salem.

“You give our coaching staff a whole week to prepare for you, we’re going to have everything down pat,” Teague said.

He scored 11 points—10 fewer than his average—on 4-of-14 shooting for the Demon Deacons, who were playing for the first time since a loss to Virginia Tech a week earlier cost them the second No. 1 ranking in school history.

The sophomore point guard—and breakout star—did enough to improve to 2-0 in his career against the Blue Devils. Last season, he scored 26 points in the Demon Deacons’ upset of then-No. 2 Duke. Wake Forest has won five of six meetings at Joel Coliseum.

“I really wasn’t making any shots, but our team scored points,” Teague said. “When you see Duke, you’re always going to step up your game.”

Henderson’s jumper capped a remarkable rally for the Blue Devils, who trailed 61-48 with 8:49 remaining.

“There was a period there when we were going to get blown out of here—not a great night for us,” Krzyzewski said.

That changed because of Singler, who had 10 points during the burst that ended with a flurry in the final seconds.

Scheyer’s 3-pointer from the corner over Johnson hit the front of the rim, but the Duke guard hustled for the rebound and called the Blue Devils’ final timeout with 17.4 seconds left. Henderson inbounded the ball to McClure, who got it back to the swingman for his big jumper.

“That was my responsibility—I should have had that,” Johnson said.

Wake Forest took its first double-figure lead of the game after a pair of spectacular plays in the open court.

Johnson put the Demon Deacons up 54-43 with 11 1/2 minutes left when his steal from Nolan Smith led to a breakaway dunk. That came seconds after Aminu’s highlight-reel jam when he took a between-the-legs feed from Ishmael Smith.

“I almost didn’t catch the ball, I was so amazed by the pass,” Aminu said.

They later stretched their lead to 13 when David Weaver laid in Smith’s alley-oop pass with 8:49 remaining to make it 61-48.

Weaver—one of two Demon Deacons who are 6-foot-11 or taller to get in the game—finished with nine critical points for Wake Forest.

The ACC’s leader in both field-goal percentage categories—on offense and defense—shot 40 percent and held undersized Duke to a season-worst 33 percent shooting. The Blue Devils were just 4-of-22 from 3-point range.

“It was tough to score for both teams tonight,” Krzyzewski said. “That’s why a couple of the run-outs that we gave them that led to points were key.”

That defense helped Wake Forest overcome a rare 47-43 rebounding disadvantage. The Blue Devils—who used strong offensive rebounding to stay in the game early—managed just three of their 15 offensive boards in the second half. The Demon Deacons outscored Duke 42-24 in the paint, a big reason why they improved to 5-24 all-time against No. 1.

“I knew we were going to win this game,” Teague said.

Tom Konchalski breaks down Duke's recruits and targets

Tom Konchalski is editor of the High School Basketball Insider. If a high-school player wants to get a major college scholarship, Konchalski is the man he has to impress. Countless prospect-charting Websites litter the Internet, but Konchalski’s High School Basketball Insider is different—the paper newsletter makes its way into the hands of coaches at roughly 225 schools, most of them Division I.

Tom Konchalski has been the editor and publisher of the highly respected High School Basketball Insider Report for more than thirty-five years. Currently, more than 225 colleges subscribe to his service. He is one of the select McDonald’s All-American voters. After a weekend at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, Mr. Konchalski sat down with BlueDevilsReign to talk about some Duke commitments and prospects.

  Andrew Slater's interview with Tom can be read in its entirety on the Premium page.

Duke Humiliates Maryland 85-44

DURHAM, N.C. (AP)—Jon Scheyer was a freshman on the Duke team that lost four straight games to end the season and fell out of the Top 25. So he can’t help but feel a little bit of excitement about the possibility of being No. 1—even if he’s quick to say rankings don’t matter much.

“Watching Duke when I was in high school, it did seem like they were No. 1 a lot,” the junior said. “I feel like this is where we belong.”

Gerald Henderson scored 17 points to help the second-ranked Blue Devils rout Maryland 85-44 on Saturday, a victory that could propel the Blue Devils to the No. 1 ranking next week.

Scheyer scored 12 points for Duke (18-1, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which dominated from the opening tip and led 40-15 at halftime. From there, the lead only grew, including a couple of dazzling transition scores that pushed the Blue Devils to a 60-20 lead less than 4 minutes into the second half.

Duke led by as many as 44 points, handing the Terrapins (13-6, 2-3) their worst loss under coach Gary Williams. It was the fourth-largest margin of defeat in school history.

The Blue Devils haven’t been ranked No. 1 since the final poll of 2005-06, but that could change after Wake Forest’s home loss to Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Duke had been ranked No. 1 at least once every season from 1998-2004 under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, but had not reached the top spot in the past two seasons.

Fittingly, the Blue Devils’ next game is at Wake Forest on Wednesday night.

“It’ll be a big deal for our guys and it’s a big deal for us because it means we’re playing really well,” Krzyzewski said of a No. 1 ranking. “We talked about it last week that, just don’t worry about anything, let’s just play. It’s the same thing we’re going to tell them going into this next week.

“It’s an honor and it says you’re playing real well. You don’t get anything from it except a really big headline when you lose.”

Duke shot just 43 percent, but hit 12 of 25 3-point attempts and finished with a 56-38 edge in rebounds. More importantly, the Blue Devils completely shut down Maryland’s offense early to take the big lead and didn’t let the Terrapins have much room to operate after that.

Maryland shot 28 percent, including 2-for-12 from 3-point range.

“I wouldn’t use (the word), ‘Surprised,”’ Henderson said of the lopsided result. “I know how good this team can be when we’re playing together and playing defense like we did the entire game. We can be pretty spectacular and explosive. I feel like we should play like that all the time.”

It was Maryland’s worst defeat since a 39-point loss to Wake Forest in 1963. It was also the Terps’ worst ACC loss ever.

Landon Milbourne scored 19 points to lead Maryland, but the rest of the team shot 9-for-48 (19 percent) for the game.

“It wasn’t how good they are defensively. What makes them good is their intensity,” said Greivis Vasquez, who managed four points on 2-for-10 shooting. “If you don’t play as hard as they do, you’re not going to win games in here. You’ve got to play hard. If you don’t, you’re going to lose by 40.”

The frustration was evident early when Dave Neal of Maryland flung his arms into the air in and cursed in disgust after Duke’s 7-footer Brian Zoubek beat several Terps to the ball for the second offensive rebound of the possession before drawing a foul.

Things didn’t get any better in the second half, which opened with a stretch in which Duke seemed more like it was putting together a highlight reel than playing an ACC opponent.

First came a 3-pointer from Nolan Smith, followed by another 3 from Henderson. Then, after a missed shot, Henderson threw an underhanded alley-oop pass in transition to Kyle Singler for a dunk.

Finally, after another Maryland turnover, Scheyer saved a ball from going out of bounds near midcourt in transition, leading to a perfect touch pass from Smith to Henderson for another score that capped a 14-0 run and pushed the lead to 40 points with 15:28 to play.

“The start of the second half, for about 4 or 5 minutes there, that was as good a basketball as can be played,” Krzyzewski said. “It was lights-out basketball for about 5 minutes. I was proud of my team because with a lead, you can have a tendency to let down. And they didn’t.”

Before the game, there was a moment of silence to honor longtime North Carolina State women’s coach Kay Yow—who died Saturday morning after a two-decade fight with cancer—and Bill Werber, who was the oldest living ex-major leaguer and Duke’s first All-America basketball player. Werber died Thursday.

Tyler Thornton interview

 By Andrew Slater

In early September, junior guard Tyler Thornton verbally committed to Duke University along with his AAU teammate, Josh Hairston. This past weekend the Gonzaga playmaker headed to the birthplace of basketball, Springfield, Massachusetts, where he led his team to a victory over repeat New England Prep School champions, St. Mark‘s, which features a pair of elite level big men in 6’10” Erik Murphy (Florida) and 6‘8“ Nate Lubick (Georgetown). After the hard-fought victory, Tyler spoke with BlueDevilsReign about topics ranging from what the Duke coaches have asked him to work on and a scouting report on Josh Hairston to Kendall Marshall and his mother, the future loudest Cameron Crazy.

       For the full Interview go to the Premium page.

Henderson ignites second half run as Duke gets by N.C. State 73-56

DURHAM, N.C. - It took a while, but Gerald Henderson and No. 2 Duke finally starting shooting well enough to impress even J.J. Redick.

Henderson scored 21 points and the Blue Devils shot 76 percent in the second half of their 73-56 victory over North Carolina State on Tuesday night.

Nolan Smith hit consecutive 3-pointers 30 seconds apart to start the decisive run for the Blue Devils (17-1, 4-0 ACC).

But it wasn't until Henderson took the game over by hitting jumpers and driving the lane for authoritative dunks that his teammates started to find the seams in the Wolfpack's defense. As a result, Duke's athletic swingman finish with his fourth straight game with at least 19 points.

"(Henderson's) play gave the team a big lift — when someone plays with that much assertiveness and confidence, it kinds of feeds down to the whole team," forward Kyle Singler said. "Guys kind of get shots from that."

With Redick — the Atlantic Coast Conference's career scoring leader — watching from behind the Duke bench, Singler scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half and Smith finished with 13 to help the Blue Devils, who closed the game on a 27-5 run. Their 20-for-26 shooting matched the best performance in a second half in nearly three decades under coach Mike Krzyzewski.

"When we're sharp and running our stuff and executing it ... if we're doing it sharp, we're going to make shots," Henderson said. "We're going to get open shots and we have good enough players to knock them down."

Brandon Costner and Ben McCauley both scored 15 points for the Wolfpack (10-6, 1-3), who led much of the game but hit just one field goal over the final 7:45.

"We were in it, and we couldn't close it," McCauley said. "We had them where we wanted them, and guys were playing tremendous basketball. ... Unfortunately, guys that were in the end couldn't come through."

The Wolfpack's cold spell helped Duke claim its 12th straight victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium over N.C. State, which hasn't won inside the Blue Devils' famously hostile arena since 1995.

"You can see how it lifts their spirits up," Costner said. "It's up to us as a visiting team to pick up our level of intensity and match it, and we didn't."

For a while, they had the streak in serious jeopardy — until Henderson, Smith and the rest of the Blue Devils heated up.

"That game just turned during the last 8 minutes," Krzyzewski said.

The second of Smith's two big 3s made it 52-49 with 9½ minutes left, put Duke up to stay and started the game-ending burst in which the Blue Devils came away with points on eight straight possessions.

"I got two more good looks, and I took them with confidence, and I took them like I was J.J.," Smith said.

Tracy Smith temporarily kept things tight when he hit the second of two layups with just under 8 minutes remaining — but the Wolfpack managed just one field goal the rest of the way in losing for the fourth time in five games.

"For a stretch in the second half, we played really good offense," Henderson said. "But our defense is what drives us."

Jon Scheyer's 3-pointer from the right corner with 2:15 remaining gave Duke its first double-figure lead of the game, 67-56. That turned what had been a close game into another blowout. Nine of the Blue Devils' 11 wins at home this season have come by double figures.

Duke shot nearly 51 percent overall and became the seventh team to make at least 40 percent of its shots against N.C. State — which fell to 2-5 in those games.

Duke's hot second half was a stark contrast to the opening 20 minutes — for both teams.

"We were getting good shots," Henderson said. "They just weren't falling."

The Wolfpack withstood one of their worst starts of the season — roughly 7 minutes elapsed before their first field goal — and took their first lead on McCauley's left-handed layup over 7-footer Brian Zoubek with 3½ minutes left.

N.C. State led 26-22 at halftime after holding the Blue Devils to less than 30 percent shooting. The Blue Devils trailed at the half for the third time this season — and for the teams' third straight meeting — but rallied to send the Wolfpack to their 12th loss in 13 games against ACC teams dating to last season.

"Maybe they got an extra fire lit underneath them at halftime, and they came out and played well," McCauley said. "Unfortunately, we didn't make plays when we had to."

Henderson and Singler lead Duke over Georgetown 76-67

DURHAM, N.C. – Gerald Henderson shrugged his shoulders in disbelief that he simply couldn't miss. Later, Greg Paulus gave Duke's famous home court a hard slap.

Both messages were clear: Because of Henderson's scoring touch — and Paulus' intensity at both ends of the court — the Blue Devils' long home winning streak is safe for another season.

Henderson scored 23 points and No. 3 Duke held on to beat No. 13 Georgetown 76-67 on Saturday.

Kyle Singler added 15 points and 16 rebounds and Jon Scheyer had 11 points for the Blue Devils (16-1), who won their eighth straight overall. They shot 48.6 percent and closed their home nonconference schedule by winning their Division I-best 68th consecutive non-ACC game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"It's our court, and I don't want to have anybody come in here and push us around," Paulus said.

DaJuan Summers scored 21 points in his 17th straight double-figure game, and Austin Freeman added 15 for the Hoyas (12-4).

Freshman Greg Monroe — who was recruited hard by Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski — finished with 12 points, but was called for a technical foul with about 15 minutes remaining that swung momentum back to the Blue Devils.

Georgetown trailed by 15 points in the second half before clawing back in the game with a 13-2 run early in the second half, pulling to 46-42 on Summers' free throw with 15½ minutes left.

But roughly 30 seconds later, Henry Sims was whistled for a blocking foul near the baseline and Monroe objected from the bench, prompting the technical foul from official John Cahill — the fourth foul on the Hoyas' 6-foot-11 big man.

"I don't even believe (Cahill) was even looking at the bench, but I know I definitely didn't say anything," Monroe said. "I can't say what I heard, or what somebody else said, but I know I didn't say a thing."

Scheyer knocked down the two free throws that followed to start the game-breaking 15-3 run that included a critical 25-footer from Paulus. Nolan Smith capped the burst by finger-rolling a drive through the lane to make it 61-45 with 10½ minutes left.

"It's how you react from that. We got two free throws right after that, but then I think we scored right after that, so it becomes a different game," Scheyer said. "We had a chance where we could really capitalize on (the technical foul), and we did that."

Georgetown got no closer than five points the rest of the way, pulling to 72-67 on Omar Wattad's 3-pointer with 38 seconds left before Duke hit four free throws in the final 30 seconds.

The technical foul "clearly altered how they attacked us and what we could do, but that's not the reason we ended up with less points than them," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. "They outplayed us. We're not going to sit here and look at that and say that's the reason the outcome was what it was."

Paulus, a three-year starter at point guard who is coming off the bench as a senior, finished with 10 points. After his long 3, he slapped the court — a motivational tactic made famous through the years by Duke point guards looking to inspire their teammates to make a crucial stop.

"What he showed was fight," Krzyzewski said of Paulus. "He was attacking. He was playing with emotion. We don't win without Greg today."

Duke found itself in a rare close non-ACC game at Cameron. The Hoyas were just the second nonconference team in two seasons to stay within single digits, but couldn't become the first non-league team to win here since fellow Big East member St. John's did nearly nine years ago.

The Blue Devils became just the 12th team in three-plus seasons to shoot at least 45 percent against Georgetown — and Henderson's shooting touch, especially early, had a lot to do with that.

Henderson "put them on his shoulders and carried them through the first half," Thompson said. "He got into the flow. That happens with good players."

The athletic swingman came up two points shy of the career high he set last week at Florida State, but he still reached double figures for the ninth straight game and made it three in a row with at least 19 points. He nearly had that many by halftime, scoring 17 while hitting his first seven shots — including 3-pointers 40 seconds apart late in the half.

After the second of those swished through over Julian Vaughn, Henderson — a Philadelphia native who grew up watching the Villanova-Georgetown rivalry — lifted his arms in amazement.

"Teams are going to play me to drive, so I need to be able to knock that down," Henderson said. "I hit a shot that I normally don't hit — a long, pull-up 3 is not a shot that I'm taking a lot, but it went in."

Those 3s came during a dominant stretch for Duke, which held the Hoyas without a field goal during the final 7½ minutes of the half while outscoring them 17-2.

"That spurt that we had with the 3s was, whew, crazy-good," Krzyzewski said. "They got on a hot streak, and that kind of blew it open for a little bit."

 

Singler leads Duke past Ga.Tech 70-56

Duke picked the right opponent to have a miserable night shooting.

Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler scored 19 points each and the third-ranked Blue Devils overcame their worst shooting game of the season for its seventh straight victory, pulling away for a 70-56 win over sloppy Georgia Tech on Wednesday night.

Duke (15-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) was just 23-of-59 from the field, a 39-percent performance that would have been enough to get them beat on many nights. Not this one.

Georgia Tech (9-7, 0-3) turned it over 18 times, went only 7-of-19 from the free throw line and started with three straight ACC losses for the second straight season.

Lewis Clinch hit a 3-pointer that pulled the Yellow Jackets within 46-41 with just over 8 minutes remaining. But Jon Scheyer hit twice from beyond the arc and Henderson also swished a 3, stretching the margin far beyond comeback range for a team of Georgia Tech's limited offensive skills.

Zachery Peacock, with 13 points, was the only player in double figures for the Yellow Jackets, who were a little more accurate from the field (41 percent) than they were from the line (37 percent).

Duke's previous worst shooting effort was a 41 percent against Virginia Tech on Jan. 4. But the Blue Devils, who also started dismally at the line, hit enough free throws down the stretch to bury the Yellow Jackets.

Georgia Tech surprisingly led through most of the first half, building its largest lead when Peacock laid it in off a nifty pass from Lewis Clinch to make it 23-15 about 12 minutes into the game.

The Yellow Jackets made only one more field goal the rest of the half, enduring a scoring drought that stretched for nearly 6 minutes. During that span, they missed eight straight shots, clanked four straight free throws and turned it over four times before Alade Aminu finally made one from the line.

But Duke, despite shooting just 12-of-36 from the field, went to the locker room with a 31-28 lead and steadily pulled away in the second half as a few more jumpers started to fall.

One bright spot for the home team: Top high school prospect Derrick Favors announced earlier Wednesday that he would attend Georgia Tech next season, picking the Yellow Jackets over Georgia and North Carolina State. He attended the game and received a rousing ovation when shown on the video board during the second half.

Georgia Tech could have used him in a gold-and-white uniform.

Duke gets by Florida State 66-58

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)—Gerald Henderson scored a career-high 25 points Saturday, leading second-ranked Duke to a 66-58 victory at Florida State.

The Blue Devils (14-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) ran off the first nine points of the second half during a 41-11 run to build their largest lead of the game, 46-21 with 12:45 left.

Toney Douglas led Florida State (13-3, 0-1) with 18 points, but was just 7-of-23 from the floor as the Seminoles shot just 31 percent.

The first half was believed to be one of the lowest scoring in the ACC since the game clock went into effect.

Duke led 19-14 at the break, making just five field goals—one on a goaltending call to go along with four baskets by Henderson. Florida State scored only four points in the final 13:07 of the half, going scoreless for 7 minutes and 58 seconds at one stretch.

In the second half, the Blue Devils went 7:14 without a basket until Henderson’s layup with 5:31 left gave Duke a 53-42 lead.

Derwin Kitchen scored 16 points and Uche Echefu 10 to get Florida State back into the game in the final minutes. Both players scored all of their points in the final 13 minutes as the Seminoles pulled to single digits, 51-42, with 6:03 left on a pair of Douglas free throws.

Henderson’s 9-of-14 shooting helped Duke shoot 42.9 percent from the field. Kyle Singler chipped in with 15 points for Duke and Nolan Smith added a dozen.

John Wall Talks about his visit to Duke

                      John Wall discusses his visit to Duke and also his future plans.

                      All of the interview is on the premium message board.

  

  

Duke locks up Davidson 79-67

DURHAM, N.C. (AP)—Stephen Curry started creating shots, and not coincidentally, they started to fall. Just that quickly, Davidson was on its way back from a big deficit—and it was starting to feel like last March again.

But the Wildcats had too far to come, especially against No. 2 Duke.

“We still had a 10-point lead. … These teams are going to make runs like that on us,” guard Jon Scheyer said. “And whenever that happens, when it gets tight or close like that, we’ve got to take shots aggressively and with a lot of confidence.”

Scheyer and Kyle Singler both scored 22 points, and Duke held off a late Curry-led charge to beat Davidson 79-67 on Wednesday night.

Gerald Henderson added 11 points on 3-of-11 shooting for the Blue Devils (13-1). They never trailed, outscored the Wildcats 20-7 to start the second half and won their 67th straight nonconference home game by withstanding a furious comeback attempt that for a while seemed destined to add to Curry’s legend.

“All was good in Krzyzewskiville. And then, all of a sudden, the clouds came,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “The story’s going to end bad. But you don’t win every round against good teams. They’re going to make you look bad, stop you, or you’re going to stop them and we stopped them a little bit more than they stopped us.”

Curry, the nation’s leading scorer, scored 29 points—the most Duke has allowed any player this season—on 10-of-22 shooting but was just 1-for-8 from 3-point range and turned it over six times for Davidson (10-3).

He scored 21 points in the second half as he tried to rally his team from a 25-point deficit, including seven in a 90-second span that came during a 14-2 spurt midway through the half to help the Wildcats close within 13.

“After they made that big run in the second half and got up 20-plus, we didn’t panic,” Curry said. “We’ve been in that situation before—kind of too often now—and we just got back to hittin’ singles, as coach would say, and making the easy play.”

Davidson then pulled to 69-61 on Andrew Lovedale’s basket in the post with 3:53 left, but couldn’t get any closer. Lance Thomas hit two critical free throws and Scheyer scored six points in the final 2 minutes—including the 1,000th of his career—to help Duke pull away late.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years against Duke,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said. “They expose you. They undress you. And unless you stay in the center ring and fight from the center of the ring, instead of backpedaling and getting caught on the ropes, you’re never going to be successful against Duke.”

Duke thought it had taken control with an impressive burst to begin the second half, which included eight points from Henderson and two 3s by Scheyer. But the Blue Devils hung on long enough to drop Davidson to 3-34 against top-five teams while winning their 22nd straight in the series.

They haven’t lost to the Wildcats since Krzyzewski’s second season at Duke in 1981—the last time a non-Atlantic Coast Conference team from the state beat them at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

They were playing as the nation’s No. 2 team for the first time since up-and-coming Wake Forest upset them last February, and started strong against Curry before the darling of last season’s NCAA tournament found ways to create shots against the ACC’s stingiest defense—much like he did during the Wildcats’ run to regional finals.

“I’m not knocking the Southern Conference, but we’re the last big program (Davidson plays) until they go to the NCAAs—this is like a March game for them,” Krzyzewski said. “We have to match that. I thought they approached it like that—they knocked us back. … And then all of a sudden, we started playing tougher.”

The Blue Devils defended the Davidson star by running either their point guards (Nolan Smith or Greg Paulus) or one of their longer players (Singler or Lance Thomas) at him. Those combinations kept Curry scoreless until the 6-minute mark of the first half, and he missed his first four attempts.

“The crazy part is … we knew that was probably some of the best defense we could have played on him, and the score was still close,” Thomas said. “So we knew we were in for a game.”

Thomas was right. Curry regrouped in the second half and making 6 of his 13 shots. In the process, he moved into second place on the school’s career scoring list with 2,040 points—eight more than Fred Hetzel.

Lovedale finished with 15 points and Steve Rossiter added 10 rebounds for Davidson, which fell to 0-3 this season against ranked teams yet put forth a significantly more impressive showing than it did in last month’s 76-58 loss at Purdue, which held Curry to 5-for-26 shooting.

“Some of the slapping that (Purdue) did to us—they took us into the alley and slapped us, and that lingered tonight,” McKillop said. “Those very unpleasant memories surfaced tonight in the early stages of the first half, early stages of the second half. Great teams don’t allow that to linger. But this is a team that’s going through a process of getting better.”