Lack of rebounding, cold shooting catch up with Duke

LOS ANGELES - Even the warm California sun provided no relief for the men's basketball team as the Blue Devils went ice cold in tinsel town Sunday.

Following Trajan Langdon's career-high 34 points against Clemson Tuesday, the sophomore sharpshooter was unable to find his stroke against the Bruins, as Duke's leading scorer finished 0-for-5 from three point land in the first half.

The inside game of UCLA added to the struggle as 6-foot-9 center Jelani McCoy was able to take advantage of the smaller Blue Devils under the basket and come up with nine defensive rebounds to go along with his 11 points. J.R. Henderson and Kris Johnson followed McCoy's example and generated a number of easy inside baskets by penetrating the Duke interior defense with aggressive drives and wheeling post moves.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski tried to bulk up Duke's inside game by playing Greg Newton at the end of the first half. Newton provided a solid nine minutes with three points and four boards, but was unable to curb the Bruins offensive rebounding assault which accumulated 16 second-chance opportunities on the afternoon.

"Rebounding has been a weakness for us for awhile, and today it got exposed even more," senior Jeff Capel said. "We've known about our weakness for awhile, but since we've been winning it hasn't been talked about.... Our weakness got exposed today, and we're going to have to work on that if we're going to be the team we want to be."

The Blue Devils' rebounding is far from the only thing they will need to improve before the NCAA Tournament. Langdon has led the team in scoring the past two games, pouring in 24 against Florida State before his explosion against Clemson. But now it is painfully apparent that Langdon is as susceptible to an off night as anyone. In that eventuality, Blue Devils need to know where the rest of their points will come from.

Both Ricky Price and Jeff Capel showed that they are capable of stepping up and taking over on offense when needed. Capel, showing stellar senior leadership, drew an offensive foul from McCoy to end UCLA's 9-0 run in the middle of the first half. The Blue Devils took advantage of Capel's momentum-shifting play and pulled to within one point before the half as both Capel and Price scored on two drives and a three-pointer, accounting for 14 straight Duke points.

Price seemed more than willing to bare the scoring brunt in the first half as he asserted himself both with long-range bombs and his signature driving, whirling jump shots. Since scoring five points in the last three games in January, Price has averaged 13 points in Duke's last six games. With his homecoming to Los Angeles and his father in the crowd to cheer him on, Price accumulated 12 points in the first half, keeping the Blue Devils close despite their poor inside play.

"Dollar blanketed Wojciechowski the entire game," UCLA coach Steve Lavin said. "That was a great matchup of two little pit bulls, two bull dogs fighting it out there. Both those guys have unbelievable heart. What they lack in vertical jump or spectacular highwire-style play, they get done in the trenches with the nuts and bolts. Watching those two is like an Ali-Joe Frazier fight."

Duke couldn't deliver the knockout punch, however. In the second half, Duke improved on its drives as Chris Carrawell and Capel were able to plow through the paint and deliver, countering the lead UCLA had built up in the first minutes of the second half. Until the very end, it appeared as if Duke would be able to pull out another win despite an off-game... another UVa... another game to add to the seven-game winning streak.

Yet the height of the Bruins prevailed, with Henderson slamming it in after getting his own rebound, giving UCLA a two-point advantage in the final seconds. Duke's loss was foretold by the sweet arc of Langdon's three hitting the hard rim with a clanking malice, instead of its usual soft swoosh of victory.