WINSTON-SALEM - Jason Williams didn't wear the face of a 2-for-15 shooter or a point guard who racked up more turnovers than assists in the biggest game of the season.
The freshman's ear-to-ear grin belied a dismal statistical performance, but it told the story of a game won with four-wheel drive instead of typical high-speed cornering.
"You look at the stats and you say we didn't play well today, but I thought that we played really well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They did not get anything easy, and neither did we. That's why the game was so low scoring."
Duke tied a season high with 23 turnovers-led by Williams' eight-but this game was not about offensive productivity.
It was Shane Battier blocking a career-high eight shots. It was Williams grabbing nine rebounds and coming away with four steals. It was Carlos Boozer grinding out 15 points and 13 rebounds-eight on the offensive end.
And, fittingly, it was Boozer's timely gem of a steal, followed moments later by Chris Carrawell's crucial defensive rebound, that put Duke over the hump in a 69-64 victory.
"The way
Williams could afford to be all smiles after his lowest scoring output in 13 games (nine) and his third-worst of the season. His two free throws with 2.2 seconds left iced the game.
"If that [shooting performance] was on my mind, I would have missed the two free throws," Williams said. "I just looked at my teammates and I saw the desire to win. I saw it in Coach and I had it too."
On a day when the Blue Devils shot 37 percent and were nonetheless more accurate than their opponents, it was clear that the more resilient defensive performance won out.
Kansas, which employed a variety of zone defenses in its Friday win over DePaul, stuck almost exclusively with an aggressive man-to-man scheme against the Blue Devils.
And the tactic worked brilliantly, limiting Duke's penetration and denying passes on the perimeter. That is, until foul trouble took hold.
"We had not faced a team that played that good a defense in the lane," Krzyzewski said. "You compound that with [Kirk] Hinrich hitting threes and it looked like we were playing horribly. We were not playing badly."
But Hinrich, who scored 11 of Kansas' first 13 points, picked up his third foul with 8:36 to play in the first half. Minutes later, Nick Collison and Ashante Johnson went to the bench with their third fouls, softening the Jayhawks' defense.
Duke, on the other hand, never relented. Battier held star freshman Andrew Gooden to 3-for-11 shooting, and the Blue Devils improved to 20-0 when holding their opponent to under 70 points.
"[Batter] was a warrior today," Carrawell said. "He was not going to let me lose. That's Shane Battier."
Carrawell put together a warrior-like performance of his own, holding Jeff Boschee to eight points on 3-for-12 shooting. The senior's 15 points were his highest output of the postseason and included a pair of clutch free throws with 3.8 seconds left.
"We showed we can play any way," Carrawell said. "If shots are not falling, we have to find other ways to win. Today it was defense. It was gritty."
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