LOS ANGELES - While other top Atlantic Coast Conference teams were busy battling each other for ACC Tournament positioning this weekend, the conference-leading men's basketball team took a bit of a vacation Sunday by traveling to UCLA to battle the PAC-10-leading Bruins.
Unfortunately for sixth-ranked Duke, though, the Blue Devils weren't able to enjoy the trip, as they fell 73-69 to No. 17 UCLA in front of a record 13,478 fans at Pauley Pavilion.
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak for Duke, and sent them back home with a one-game ACC lead that suddenly seems precarious after the Bruins exposed a potential hole in the Blue Devils post-season plans-play in the paint.
UCLA dominated inside for the entire game, collecting a 10-rebound edge, while continually scoring down low and crashing the offensive boards.
The Blue Devils (22-6, 11-3 in the ACC) were also cold from the floor, connecting on less than 40 percent of their shots. But they managed to keep the game close behind the shooting of L.A. native Ricky Price and Duke's trademark defense.
But in the end, UCLA just played too big for Duke, as the Bruins came back from a two-point deficit with 2:02 to go to grab the win over the smaller Blue Devils.
"This was a great college basketball game," Bruin coach Steve Lavin said. "Two heavyweights fighting it out, ACC versus PAC 10, East versus West, warm weather versus cold weather. We definitely had a size advantage and what we like to do every game is to go inside-outside and then back inside again. We got started by establishing a low post game, and then we could just dump it in there."
After senior Jeff Capel put Duke up 69-67 with a leaner in the lane just before the two-minute mark, UCLA (17-7, 11-3 in the PAC-10) used its inside game to seal the victory.
Toby Bailey drove the paint to tie the game, and following a Price miss, 6-foot-9 J.R. Henderson put back his own miss to give the Bruins the lead, 71-69.
Henderson led UCLA with 18 points to go with his eight boards.
The Blue Devils then failed to capitalize on their final two possessions, as Charles O'Bannon tipped and stole away one Price inbounds pass, and Trajan Langdon missed his 10th three-point try out of 13 with under a minute to go.
However, the Blue Devils still only trailed by two with 16 seconds to
Bailey iced it with two charity shots one second later to give the Bruins their four-point win.
"Offensive rebounding is one of their strengths and defensive rebounds are one of our weaknesses," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Today their strength just won out.... Sometimes you think you have a good look [on offense]-and it would be against a 6-2 or 6-4 guy-but then you look [against UCLA] and all you see are arms. They played really good half court defense."
The Bruins win exposed a Blue Devil weakness that has been inherent, but overshadowed, in Duke's recent string of success since switching to a smaller lineup eight games ago.
"It's easier for the public to see when we lose, but we've known for a while that [rebounding] is a weakness for our team," Capel said. "It's just that we've been winning and it hasn't been talked about that much. Every game we've been out-rebounded. We're small, but that's not an excuse that we're small. It's just something we're going to have to work on it if we want to get as far as we can in the tournament and be the best team that we want to be."
But just as guard play was exposed as a weakness for former ACC-leader Wake Forest before it lost four ACC games, the Blue Devils hope that their height differential won't get in the way of their quest to win their first ACC title since 1994.
In addition, Sunday's game served as a preview of what Duke may have to face in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, as UCLA certainly will qualify for a high seed.
In fact, the Duke-UCLA rivalry at Pauley Pavilion has acted as a pretty accurate predictor of the NCAAs, as the winner of each game-in 1995, 1992 and 1966-7-has gone on to win the national title.
UCLA's game plan became obvious early in the game, as it went on a 18-4 run just five minutes after the tip-off to give the Bruins a 23-13 edge after falling behind 9-5.
Kris Johnson got the Bruins started with a layup to make the score 9-7, and all the rest of UCLA's points on the run came from near the paint or from the free throw line.
Meanwhile, the Blue Devils were misfiring, as they missed 10-of-12
But Duke turned the momentum back in its favor by taking a play out of the Bruin playbook, as freshman Chris Carrawell connected on a reverse lay-up after penetrating the lane.
Including Carrawell's bucket, the Blue Devils reeled off 13 consecutive points-seven of which were scored by Price on a trey, a jumper and a scoop off a drive-to take a three-point lead.
But UCLA took the game right back following an O'Bannon three-point play, rattling off a 10-3 run of its own.
Jeff Capel kept Duke close before the half, though, by sinking a three and a jumper to pull the Blue Devils within 34-33 at the half.
But besides Capel and Price, the other Duke starters were a combined 3-of-14 from the floor in the first half as Duke connected on a paltry 42.4 percent of its shots and hit only three of 13 three-point tries. Langdon, hitting 49 percent of his three-point shots on the season, finished the half missing all six of his shots, including five from behind the arc.
"All my shots were on line, but they just hit the back rim," Langdon said. "I don't think my shot was off. They just didn't go in."
In the second half, the Bruins continued to work the inside, as Henderson scored the first six points of the half on two putbacks and a dunk.
But Duke hung close, trailing only 50-45 when Langdon finally found his stroke.
After Langdon drained a trey from the right wing with 11:54 to go, he transformed into his typically icey self, scoring each of the next two times he touched the ball, going on a personal eight-point run in 1:20 to bring the Blue Devils within 54-53.
The teams traded baskets until inside of three minutes remained, when Capel gave Duke its final points before the Bruin 6-0 run that sealed the win.
"There's a very thin line between us being good and average, and for us to be good, we need everybody giving everything they have for 40 minutes," Capel said. "If not, then we're not that good of a team. I don't think we had everybody on this team, when they stepped onto the floor, giving everything that they had, and that's the reason we lost.
"There are going to be nights when guys aren't hitting and we need guys to step it up."
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