CLEMSON, S.C.--It seems as if the men's basketball team is always making history.
This year, however, the Blue Devils are making history in an infamous way. Duke fell to Clemson for the second time this season--this time it was a 51-44 loss in Littlejohn Coliseum Saturday afternoon. The Tigers swept Duke for the first time since 1977. And the 44 points comprised Duke's lowest output since 1982 when the Blue Devils lost to Maryland 40-36.
Clemson (12-6, 3-6 Atlantic Coast Conference) forced Duke (10-11, 0-9 ACC) to play a slow-paced game. The Blue Devils battled Clemson defensively, allowing the Tigers only 51 points. But Duke still found a way to lose the game and was unable to bring home that elusive ACC win.
"Today is more frustrating probably than any other game because we didn't play well," Duke acting head coach Pete Gaudet said. "I thought we'd had some good play in the other games. If there are any big bridges on the way back. . . I didn't do a really good job of preparing the team for this game today, and that really bothers me."
The game was low-scoring--typical for Clemson--and close for most of the contest. Duke, after battling to four ties and two second-half leads, fell behind for good with 3:27 left when Tiger reserve guard Bill Harder drove in for an easy lay-up to put Clemson ahead 43-41.
After many Duke attempts to come back in those final minutes, the game finally caved in for Duke as freshman Trajan Langdon charged over Clemson's Rayfield Ragland with 29.5 seconds remaining. The Tigers got the ball back with a three-point lead, and the Blue Devils were left in a desperate fouling spree as the clock ticked away.
Duke's play seldom looked good, even from the onset. Senior Cherokee Parks, who had been averaging 20.7 points per game, had only 10 against the Tigers. Sophomore Jeff Capel was the game's leading scorer with 17 points, but no other Blue Devil broke into double figures. Clemson brought the game down to its own pace, using up most of the 35-second clock on each possession.
"We extended in the last game and that hurt us," Gaudet said. "We weren't playing very far away from the basket. The shot clock was able to run down just about every time, and we knew that would happen. We wanted to dig in with 12 to 14 seconds left."
However, even when the Blue Devils were able to contain the Clemson offense, they still found themselves floundering on their own offensive end.
"Clemson played terrific," Gaudet said. "What we should have taken advantage of we didn't. We thought we could do some things [in the second half] that could get us on a run, but we made careless plays that didn't enable us to get any kind of momentum."
The first half was uneventful and unexciting. Duke was held scoreless for seven minutes as the Tigers finished out the half with a 9-3 run. It was capped by freshman Greg Buckner's tip-in with three seconds left to send Clemson into the locker room with a two-point lead, 23-21.
"I have to think that when you hold a team to 23 points in the first half, you have a pretty good chance of winning," Gaudet said. "Our breakdowns were more offensive. We were beaten to every loose ball in the first half."
"After playing against Carolina and putting on the showing that we did against them, we felt that there was no way we could be beat," freshman Ricky Price said. "But we didn't get any loose balls, we didn't get any offensive rebounds, we didn't get to the line enough and they had us running around on defense--we were on defense the whole time, basically.
"They outworked us, outhustled us and at most times, outplayed us. That's why they came away with a victory, and that's why we're sitting here with our heads down."
In their previous ACC losses, the Blue Devils at least played cohesively. In this game, they showed no signs of the team that was able to battle North Carolina to double overtime.
"Some of what we tried to do is build on our losses," Gaudet said. "Today there was no building going on at all."
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