The Cameron Crazies were treated to not one but two basketball games Thursday night. One was better known as "the first half," while the other went by the title of-you guessed it-"the second half."
In the first game, fans were looking at Davidson's score, turning to each other, and saying with disgust, "I can't believe we're only beating them by eight."
In the second game, those same fans were chanting "show no mercy," not to mention "we want Todd" and "J.D. Simpson."
Throughout the first half of play, Duke struggled both defensively and offensively. Rebounds from Duke's basket were pulled down as often by a Davidson Wildcat as a Blue Devil-each side grabbed eight on that end of the court. Davidson suffered no similar difficulties, pulling down 11 of the 16 rebounds on their end of the court.
Duke knocked down 46.9 percent of its field goals and 41.7 percent from three-point range.
Most telling of the Blue Devils' troubles, though, was the scoreboard itself. Duke scored a respectable 45 points in the first half. Davidson, however, tallied 34, and Duke's 11-point halftime lead was the largest of the game at the time.
"I think we gave up eight layups in the first half," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And then we cut that out in the second half."
Whatever it was that the Blue Devils were doing in the first half, they did indeed "cut it out" in the second.
The offense picked up, scoring 10 points more than it had in the first 20 minutes and sending fans wild with dunks, alley-oops and even a couple of rare driving layups by Wojciechowski. The shooting percentage went up, as Duke made 58.3 percent of its field goals and 62.5 percent of its three-point attempts.
The defense picked up the pace, creating 14 turnovers for 24 points, and earning four blocks and 10 steals.
More important to Krzyzewski was the difference in the rebounding game. While the Blue Devils were still out-rebounded by one, the difference was visible.
"In the second half, I thought we did a really good job on the boards," Krzyzewski said. "I don't care what the numbers are. I know when we're rebounding and when we're not, and we did a really good job of rebounding in the second half."
What pushed Duke to the convincing 100-65 victory was the second half play. In the first half, Davidson was just what Krzyzewski said-a very good team. And for 20 minutes, Duke played with a very good team. For the next 20 minutes, Davidson remained a very good team. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, the second-half Blue Devils were a great team.
Whatever the difference was at halftime-a pep talk, a change of underwear, a new flavor of Gatorade- the Blue Devils need to bottle it for the rest of the season. Those Blue Devils were the ones that were picked for the cover of Sports Illustrated, and they were the ones that Dick Vitale flips out over on a regular basis.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.