On Saturday night, Illinois accomplished something which no team outside the Atlantic Coast Conference has done in nearly 13 years. The Fighting Illini defeated the men's basketball team in Cameron Indoor Stadium, 75-65, ending Duke's 95-game home winning streak against nonconference opponents, which dated back to Jan. 12, 1983.
In handing Duke (4-1) its first loss of the season, Illinois (3-0) dominated the the 12th-ranked Blue Devils in the paint throughout the contest, outrebounding Duke 42-34. But the Fighting Illini's victory was sealed during a three-minute run in the final minutes, in which they outscored Duke 9-0. The Illinois scoring run, which turned a 60-59 Duke lead into a 68-60 margin in the Illini's favor, was sparked by four Blue Devil turnovers, including three passes which were thrown into the hands of Illinois guard Kiwane Garris.
The first of these turnovers allowed Garris to break away on an easy transition layup that gave Illinois the lead for good at 61-60. After a Duke timeout, the Blue Devils again coughed up the ball. This time, sophomore guard Steve Wojciechowski fouled Garris, who was able to convert both of his free throw attempts--a noteworthy accomplishment, since the Illini had hit just two of their 15 previous foul shots in the contest. From then on, Illinois never looked back.
"This is a game situation--close game in the last two minutes--where you either step up or falter," senior co-captain Chris Collins said. "Tonight we faltered, and I think we're going to learn from it. I think you can see a much stronger ballclub the next time out."
The scoring run was not the Blue Devils' only dry spell late in the second half. About a minute prior to the start of the 9-0 Illinois surge, the Illini managed to keep the ball out of Duke's hands for 52 seconds by hustling to grab several offensive rebounds. Even though the Illini missed three free throws in that 52-second period, the Blue Devils could not pull down the rebound on any of these Illinois misses.
"They put you in a position to lose concentration," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I think their relentless pursuit of the ball at a time where we gave them about five straight opportunities before they scored--for me that was the key part of the ballgame. That was the key exchange where they just wore us down."
It took a huge Duke run just to make the game competitive, though. Late in the first half, it looked like the Illini might run away with an easy victory as they built up a 22-8 lead with 2:54 to play. But junior co-captain Jeff Capel was poured in six of his game-high 27 points in the final two and a half minutes of the first half to pull Duke within eight points at intermission.
"When they had a chance to put as away at the end of the first half, I think we showed what kind of heart we have," Collins said.
The Illini built their first-half lead without much help from Garris, who scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half. The junior guard had not played for the past two weeks because of a pulled groin muscle, and he did not start on Saturday.
"With the exception of the game against Texas-San Antonio [on Nov. 25], he hadn't played in two weeks," Illinois head coach Lou Henson said. "He hadn't done much of anything except ride his bicycle, and he didn't work out with us [Friday]. So we didn't know whether he could go or not. In the first half, we didn't want to play him very much because we felt if it's a close game, we're not going to win unless he's in there."
With Garris scoring just four first-half points, the Illini relied on their inside game as well as the penetration and outside shooting of guards Richard Keene and Bryant Notree to take command early in the game. The Illinois guards were also able to find forwards Jerry Gee and Jerry Hester open inside for several easy layups. Krzyzewski felt that Duke's interior defense was responsible for much of Illinois' inside scoring in the first half.
"Our big guys need to post harder and play in a more physical manner," Krzyzewski said. "I didn't think we got the contribution we needed to get from them, more so defensively, because they drove us, and on defensive rebounds."
Duke's inability to grab rebounds also meant that the Illini were able to convert on many second-chance shots throughout the contest.
"If you give them second or third chances, that revitalizes you," Krzyzewski said. "Now you're going against a defense that has already played defense for 20 or 30 seconds. That's been a weakness of our basketball team, and it will be because we're not a real big team."
The Blue Devils opened the second half with a similar offensive flurry to that which they displayed in the final few minutes before intermission. Throughout the second half, Duke's guards appeared more comfortable on offense, hitting 13 of their 26 shots and displaying a more fluid passing scheme than in the first half.
"In the second half, I felt like Ricky [Price, Duke's sophomore swingman], Jeff and myself did a better job of penetrating, getting fouled and then creating some open shots outside."
Throughout the game, the Illini's free-throw shooting was so bad that it was nearly comical. But even though Illinois converted just one of its first 11 free throws, it was able to grab rebounds on about half of its misses. Still, even with Garris hitting six key foul shots down the stretch, the Illini finished a paltry 10-for-25 from the line.
"How many games are you going to win when you do that?" Henson said of his team's poor free-throw shooting. "In practice, we are shooting 84 percent for free throws. Each player has shot over 3,000 free throws that we have recorded. So we're trying to get them to shoot in the game like they have in practice. We normally shoot them pretty well."
Actually, the Blue Devils did not fare much better from the charity stripe. Duke shot an uncharacteristically low 50 percent from the foul line for the game.
"If you're playing in a game where there's not a lot of contact, you go to the line, and your concentration is better," Krzyzewski said. "When you're fighting, like both teams were fighting tonight, you go to the line, and sometimes you lose your concentration. I think it hurt both teams. They were able to rebound our misses, though, and we were not able to rebound their misses."
The net result of the Blue Devils' poor free-throw shooting, their frontcourt defensive lapses and their late-game turnovers was Duke's first loss of the 1995-96 season. And after the game, the Blue Devils seemed much more concerned about their problems on the court than with ending their 95-game home winning streak against non-ACC teams.
"I had never paid any attention to that streak," Krzyzewski said. "The most important streak for us was two national championships in a row."
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