Duke overcomes tired legs in sizzling 1st half performance

There is a phenomenon that exists in sports called a letdown game, where a team coming off an emotional, hard-fought win enters its next game flat and loses to a team it would normally defeat.

Saturday's contest against Virginia was a perfect example of a potential letdown game for the Blue Devils. Just 40 hours after its four-point overtime victory vs. North Carolina, Duke took the court once again to face a Cavalier squad that forced an overtime in Charlottesville in January.

So, how did the Blue Devils respond? They scored on three of their first four possessions and denied the Wahoos a point, en route to building an 8-0 lead in the first 2:08 of the contest.

The onslaught continued throughout the first half, as Duke connected on 26-of-38 from the field, a whopping 68 percent. On the other end, the Blue Devil pressure defense held Virginia to 33-percent shooting.

"I'm unbelievably proud of my basketball team," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "After that game on Thursday night..., for a team like ours that's still pretty young, to put that behind them and come here ready to play. Our team was amazingly focused to play today. And we're amazingly tired right now."

Despite most of the Duke starters logging over 40 minutes against the Tar Heels, the team came out as fresh and intense as it has been all season.

While the offense was hitting on all cylinders, it was the defense in the first half that spurred this domination in the first 20 minutes of the game. With the Blue Devils holding a 19-6 lead six minutes into the contest, the Cavaliers had only managed to make 2-of-14 shots from the field.

Virginia head coach Pete Gillen also believed his team had a chance at the upset in this favorable situation, but his hopes were dashed by the first television timeout.

"Sometimes after games, [Carrawell] is telling you guys, 'Yeah I can play more,'" Krzyzewski joked. "He can't play more. If he [says he can], he's lying."

While the first four minutes of the game were key for Duke, it did not relent, and in fact, got better as the half progressed. Just as the Cavaliers were finally settling down, the Blue Devil offense put on a clinic.

Led by Jason Williams' six assists, the Duke attack converted on its last 12 possessions of the first half. It appeared that Duke was going to be thwarted on its last possession of the half, but in a play symbolic of the Wahoo first half, Roger Mason saved a ball from going out of bounds under his own basket right to Williams, who laid the ball in as time expired.

The Blue Devils built their largest lead, 32 points, on this last possession.

"We had a lot of energy in that first half," Krzyzewski said. "I was shocked at the score. We were incredibly hot too, hitting everything, and I thought our defense was outstanding in the first half."

After a period in which the Blue Devils played one game in 11 days (vs. Clemson), the well-rested Duke squad needed every last drop in the tank to complete the two-game sweep. This success is due in part to the priorities of Blue Devils. Fatigue appears quite low on this list.

"We can't worry about being tired," Carlos Boozer said. "We got to worry about defending our home court, winning and playing great basketball."

Battier, who finished the game with 21 points and 11 rebounds, recognized the difficulty of these three days, but he also knows what conference the Blue Devils play in.

"[These two wins] are a testament to our coaches and our captains getting these guys ready to play," he said. "The ACC is not very easy. There are certain stretches that are especially difficult, and this was one of these stretches."

After two important conference wins that showed a lot about the mental toughness of this squad, the road does not get any smoother. Wednesday night, a Maryland team on a three-game winning streak enters Cameron.