KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- It was only fitting that Jeff Capel was the first Duke player to take a snip at the Thompson-Boling Arena nets Saturday night.
Without his performance against Purdue in the Southeast Regional semifinals, the Blue Devils might not be preparing for this week's Final Four in Charlotte.
The Blue Devil freshman from nearby Fayetteville had averaged nearly 10 points per game in the three NCAA Tournament contests leading into the regional final. But Capel's game against Purdue -- 19 points, including 3-of-3 from three-point range, seven assists and just one turnover -- may have been his best as a Blue Devil to date.
"Today you saw that Jeff Capel is going to be a superstar," said backcourt teammate Chris Collins. "Everybody has ups-and-downs their freshman year, but this was his coming out party."
Collins couldn't resist taking a little credit for Capel's three-point barrage Saturday.
"We play `H-O-R-S-E' sometimes, and I think I push his range out a little bit," he said.
Early in the Purdue game Capel established that he would be a force to be reckoned with. The athletic guard banked in a leaning transition basket two minutes in to give Duke a 6-2 lead, and he calmly stroked the day's first trey from 22 feet minutes later.
But it was in the second half of Duke's 69-60 win that Capel dropped jaws all across the television-watching nation.
Capel scored eight of Duke's first 12 points of the half as the Blue Devils turned a 32-32 deadlock into an eight-point advantage. Early-second half explosions had been Grant Hill's territory in the regional semifinals against Marquette, but the freshman was undaunted by the stakes.
It gets better.
When Hill, who had been guarding All-American Glenn Robinson all day, picked up his fourth foul with 10 minutes still to play, Capel assumed most of the team's ball-handling responsibilities.
"When I got my fourth foul I was pretty upset," Hill said. "When I saw Jeff in the huddle I tried to have a look on my face that was really intense."
"Grant was real positive," Capel said. "He's carried us this far, so it was time for us to step up."
What transpired thereafter was some of Duke's best basketball of the year, in head coach Mike Krzyzewski's words.
There were heady decisions on when to slow it down, on when to enter the ball into the post, on when to drive by his defender for an open shot. And there was that behind-the-back pass to Antonio Lang at a key juncture. But that was right before Capel slipped into the open court with 40 seconds left and threw down a thunderous dunk that sent the Duke fans into hysterics.
Capel, who was named to the all-region team by the media, never let his serious court demeanor slip off his face in the postgame press conference. But Hill said that his young teammate was psyched to carry out his assignment.
"He was in the huddle telling me to shut up," Hill said. "He's really developed. He's the best."
In addition to Capel's incredible ball-handling poise, Marty Clark made some key assists to Cherokee Parks inside and Antonio Lang provided the scoring needed to put Purdue away.
Slowly but surely, with its best player on the bench, Duke pulled away from the Big 10 champions.
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