NEW YORK - Defense wins ballgames.
This saying held true for the men's basketball team in its two Thanksgiving weekend games in the Chase Preseason NIT. The Blue Devils (3-1) defeated Tulsa, 72-67, in Wednesday's semifinals by forcing the Golden Hurricane into 23 turnovers. A lack of defensive effectiveness came back to haunt Duke in Friday's finals, as Indiana forward Andrae Patterson lit the Blue Devils up for 39 points in the Hoosiers' 85-69 win.
Patterson created his own highlight film throughout the weekend. The 6-foot-8 junior hit the game winning shot with 1.2 seconds remaining Wednesday to help Indiana advance past Evansville to the final. Patterson then had 34 minutes of highlight-reel play against Duke.
Patterson went 15-of-24 from the floor, hitting jumpers, dunks, layups and even a three pointer. He scored 22 points in the second half to bring the Hoosiers back from a six-point halftime deficit. The Blue Devils continually threw different defenders at Patterson, but were unable to slow him down.
"Everything was good for him tonight," junior Roshown McLeod said. "We wanted to make him take contested shots. We wanted to be in his face.... We wanted to make him go left and shoot off the dribble. We didn't do a good job of it tonight, and he had a big night."
Duke was able to make its final run of the game with Patterson out. The Blue Devils went on a 7-1 run to pull within two with 6:30 remaining in the second half, capped off by a Trajan Langdon three pointer. Patterson was immediately put back in the game, and the Duke rally was foiled, as the Hoosiers used a 16-4 run to open up a 77-63 lead, effectively closing out the game.
Patterson's strong performance highlighted Indiana's physical play. The Hoosiers outmuscled Duke throughout the contest, shuttling in and out five players over 6-foot-8 to shut down Duke inside. Indiana outrebounded Duke, 43-37, and made the Blue Devils' inside game completely ineffective.
"We happened to meet our match in a team that really overmatched us physically," junior forward Ricky Price said. "We know we need to play stronger. This team is strong. But we didn't play strong tonight."
The other major culprit for Duke's second half demise was its foul shooting. The Blue Devils only made 53.8 percent (21-of-39) from the charity stripe, and missed four straight early in the second half to allow Indiana to climb back into the ballgame.
While Duke was missing its free throws, Patterson was busy bringing the Hoosiers back from their halftime deficit with his array of shots, including a pair of layups to start off the second stanza.
"If we get down by 10 or 12 and get off to a bad start in the second half, we're in trouble," Indiana coach Bob Knight said. "The biggest thing that happened in the ballgame was that we got the first two shots of the second half."
As much as Friday's game was an example of poor execution for Duke, Wednesday's performance was full of positives for the Blue Devils.
Leading the way against Tulsa was junior guard Steve Wojciechowski. Coming off arguably the best game of his career against Vanderbilt, Wojciechowski had his second consecutive banner showing, finishing with 10 points, five assists, three steals and placing second on the team in rebounds with five.
Wojciechowski provided Duke with a spark when it needed one late in the first half. Down 10 with three minutes left in the period, Wojciechowski made a steal and layup to bring Duke within eight, then drove to the hoop for a layup out of the halfcourt offense to bring the deficit down to six. The Blue Devils went into the second half down only one after struggling through much of the first half, shooting only 28.6 percent.
"I told our guys after the ballgame that you use standards of comparison to try to get better," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I said to just use Steve as a standard for our effort. 'I want to play as hard as Wojo.' If you play as hard as Wojo, you'll be pretty good. He's carried us, really."
Duke took control in the second half behind the play of senior center Greg Newton and freshman forward Mike Chappell. Chappell hit two straight three pointers when Duke was up one with only six minutes to go.
Chappell's two threes gave Duke a seven-point lead, which was brought up to 10, the Blue Devils' largest lead of the game, on a Newton layup and free throw. Newton led Duke's inside play, scoring 13 points in the second half after getting off to a slow start early in the game.
"Newton was in better position in the second half," Krzyzewski said. "In the first half, he lost the fight for post position, so when he got it, he wasn't in really good position to make strong moves. In the second half, we went to some sets that put him down there."
Beyond the offensive exploits, the Blue Devils were led most of all by their defensive intensity. Duke recorded nine steals and held the Golden Hurricane to 40.7 percent shooting for the night. Tulsa All-American Shea Seals finished the evening with 25 points, but accomplished this on just 8-of-21 shooting.
Tulsa returned the favor with a stifling defensive game, holding Duke to just 40 percent from the floor. Tulsa was able to control the inside matchup, outrebounding the Blue Devils 50-37. The Golden Hurricane grabbed more offensive boards, 23, than Duke had defensively, 18. Although the Blue Devils were able to overcome their poor rebounding effort Wednesday, this was a harbinger of things to come Friday night.
"I think what I'm finding out about our team is that we're going to work hard and play good defense," Krzyzewski said. "We can't rebound real well right now. That's something we're going to have to overcome."
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