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Hill helps men's basketball hold those Tigers, 78-74**

By JONATHAN GANZ

With the men's basketball team down seven points to Clemson midway through the second half Saturday afternoon in Cameron Indoor Stadium, senior Grant Hill single-handedly took over the game and propelled the Blue Devils to a 78-74 victory.

Hill poured in a career-high 33 points, hauled down nine rebounds, had six assists and led the Blue Devils down the stretch when they needed him the most.

When Duke (16-2, 7-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) called time out with 9:52 left in the game, it trailed by seven points. The Tigers (12-9, 3-6) had just completed a 10-0 run and led 59-52. For Blue Devil fans, things did not look good.

It was an impressive display that prompted Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski to call Hill's performance one of the best he had ever seen.

"[Grant Hill] had one of the best performances here, one of the best all-around performances ever," Krzyzewski said. "He was everywhere, offensively and defensively."

Even Hill's teammates could sense that something special was happening.

"I saw it in his eyes," freshman Jeff Capel said. "He came into the huddle one time and he was telling me to give him the ball. He wanted it and it was his game today.

"He was hitting clutch free throws and he was doing everything to help us win."

And it was a win that the Blue Devils needed in order to bounce back from the loss less than 48 hours earlier to North Carolina.

"Another youngster who was terrific for us today was Capel," Krzyzewski said. "He played like a veteran today, especially after making a mistake when he missed that breakaway."

"I'm starting to become more aggressive on the basketball court," Capel said. "I've found out that when I'm aggressive and looking to score that opens up everything else. . . I'm not being a robot, I'm being a player."

Clemson put up quite a challenge, led by Gray's 22 points and Wright, who finished with 19. The Tigers could have folded when Gray fouled out with 2:03 left in the game. But they hung tough and Wright scored the last six points for Clemson, keeping the Tigers in the contest.

Duke came out strong. It scored the first seven points of the game and looked to run away from the Tigers. That early seven-point lead would turn out to be the largest lead of the day for the Blue Devils.

Duke held that advantage for the first 10 minutes of the game, but Clemson clawed back into it behind the play of Devin Gray, who had 16 points in the first half. The Tigers led for most of the last 10 minutes of the first half, and the two teams went to halftime tied at 36-36.

The second half began with Clemson going on a 13-5 run to take the lead 49-41. This gave the Tigers their largest lead of the day at eight points with 15:14 left in the game.

The Blue Devils scored the next 11 points to make the score 52-49 with 12:56 left. Capel scored five points during the run on a tomahawk dunk and a three-pointer. But Duke was unable to sustain the lead.

Clemson went on a 10-0 run to make the score 59-52. Clemson guards Bovain and Jeff Brown scored eight of the Tigers' 10 points and combined for 16 in the second half.

From that point on Hill took over for Duke. He scored 12 straight points for the Blue Devils at one point, and on both ends of Hill's personal 12-point run were assists to Capel for dunks.

Capel would finish with 12 points, 6 assists and zero turnovers for the game. In addition, Capel played tough defense against Tiger point guard Lou Richie, who finished with zero points, 4 turnovers and two time outs called.