WINSTON-SALEM - On a night when Duke's leading scorer, Elton Brand, was limited to just 10 points by a stifling Wake Forest defense, it was the Blue Devils' backcourt tandem of Trajan Langdon and Will Avery that carried the scoring load for the team en route to an 82-72 victory over Wake Forest.
"Our backcourt was very good tonight," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "William's penetration in the second half really helped and Langdon hit a couple of threes off of offensive rebounds that were key."
From the very start of the game, it was clear that Wake wasn't going to allow Brand to have another monster game offensively like he turned in against the likes of Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland.
"Elton's not going to come out every night and have a double-double," forward Shane Battier said. "[When that happens], the guards need to step up and play well-and that is what Trajan and Will did tonight."
By concentrating mainly on shutting down Brand, who has shown recently why he is regarded as one of the best big men in the country, Wake simply couldn't contend with Duke's backcourt.
The Blue Devil starting duo, in their own right, are making an argument for being the premier backcourt tandem in the nation. With the scoring punch they showed last night, teams will have a tough time deciding who to focus on.
With Wake Forest focusing on Brand, Langdon and Avery picked up the slack offensively, scoring 45 points between them. Twenty-four of those came in a second half that was much closer than the final score indicated.
The Blue Devil tandem consistently answered every attempt the persistent Wake squad made at staging a comeback with big baskets at critical moments when the home crowd was beginning to come to life.
Langdon continually hurt the Deacons with his long-range touch and seemed to score just when Wake Forest was within striking distance.
On one occasion, after missing an open three, Langdon found himself with the ball on the right baseline after Battier collected the offensive rebound off of the miss. Unfazed by the earlier miss, he squared up and knocked down another three-one of his four on the night.
"That's me; I'm a shooter and I just shoot the ball," Langdon said. "I think that I am a 50-percent three-point shooter, so if I miss one, I feel like I am getting the next one."
In its first close test of the year in ACC play, Duke couldn't seem to put away the pesky Deacons in the second half as it had been able to do in the past few weeks versus Maryland and Kentucky.
What the Blue Devils were able to do, thanks largely to Avery and Langdon, was maintain the lead and their composure in the face of a resilient Wake team that never let up.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the play of Duke's starting backcourt was that it did it without much support from the bench.
On a night when Chris Burgess, Nate James and Corey Maggette only contributed 12 points in 33 minutes, Langdon and Avery, after playing more than 34 minutes, each carried the team down the stretch.
Clinging to a tenuous 11-point lead with less than two minutes remaining, the fatigue of some of the starters began to show as Brand and Chris Carrawell missed six straight free throws to give Wake the slim chance of a comeback.
It was Langdon and Avery who once again stepped up and went to the line in the last minute of play to knock down 6-of-8 free throws and seal the victory.
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