WINSTON-SALEM - For anyone who has considered contributions from the bench and post play as Duke's two major weaknesses this season, they might want to think twice. Frequently the biggest liabilities in Duke's three losses this season, these two areas did not serve as chinks in the Blue Devils' collective armor Saturday, but rather as tremendous assets in their 82-80 victory over Wake Forest.
Sure, the Blue Devils received solid contributions from their normal stars. The Demon Deacons had no answer for a hobbling, yet still effective Jason Williams, who bombarded Wake with 26 points, eight of which came in the Blue Devils' game-ending 16-5 run. Shane Battier was also productive, registering 15 points on 3-for-5 shooting from behind the arc while playing his typically stifling defense on Wake's Darius Songaila.
But the outcome of this game did not rest on the performances of Duke's likely first-team All-Americans; instead, the victory was sealed by an assertive performance by center Carlos Boozer, who served notice to the ACC's big men that he is back-and back in a big way-and reserve Chris Duhon, who took his steadily improving confidence to the next level by hitting a game-winning shot.
In the locker rooms after the game, all the talk centered around the sterling performance of the 6-foot-1 freshman.
"Duhon is awesome," Battier said. "He is no longer a freshman in my book. He played a terrific game and he's really coming into his own now."
After filling the slot of role player throughout the majority of the season, the Slidell, La., native has been scorching Duke's opponents in recent games, becoming one of his team's most deadly scorers from both inside and outside. In fact, Duhon recorded double-digit scoring in the three games preceding the Wake Forest contest, notching 20 against Virginia, 15 against St. John's and 10 versus Georgia Tech. And while he only had six points Saturday, he made his presence known all over the court, playing 27 minutes, grabbing six rebounds, slamming home a thunderous dunk from the baseline, and of course, knocking home the game-winning shot, an eight-foot running one-hander from just right of the free-throw line. In one word, he was confident, an attribute that eluded him at the beginning of the season.
"Early on [in the season], I was kind of shying away from my shot, trying to get everyone else's confidence up," Duhon said. "Lately, [coach Mike Krzyzewski] came up to me and said, 'Chris, they're okay. They are confident in themselves and they want you to shoot the ball.' Even my teammates were saying, 'Chris, you've got to put up some shots.' So just to get everyone off my back, I listened to what they were saying and started to shoot the ball. And things are going pretty well."
Things are also going pretty well for Boozer, who scored more points Saturday (20) than in his previous two games combined. In addition, Boozer was all over the glass, doubling his rebounding output against Georgia Tech Wednesday by grabbing 10 boards.
"[Carlos] really responded," Krzyzewski said. "That was his best game."
While the 265-pound sophomore used his agility and power to finish with authority on many occasions in the second half, he also benefited from a number of excellent entry passes from his teammates, which allowed him to shoot 9-of-13 from the field. Wake Forest coach Dave Odom was quick to lament his squad's ineffectiveness at handling the burly center and the Blue Devil perimeter players who fed Boozer the ball.
"Boozer played very, very well," Odom said. "But I have to say, he got a lot of great passes from his teammates. They would take the ball to one side, influence the defense there, and then throw it back inside quickly. We've got to do a better job of letting the ball get from one side to the other and then allow it to get to a guy like that."
Boozer was also quick to capitalize on a depleted Demon Deacon frontcourt.
In fact, when Wake's second-leading scorer, Darius Songaila, was forced to sit on the bench with four fouls with 14:47 remaining, the Juneau, Alaska native adeptly called for the ball on three of Duke's next five possessions, completing a three-point play with 13:56 left, followed by a rim-shaking two-handed jam with just over 12 minutes remaining and another layup 20 seconds later.
Boozer also came up big during Duke's 12-2 run that saw the Blue Devils reduce a 75-66 deficit to a 77-77 tie. Following a Duke timeout with 5:16 remaining, the 6-foot-9 sophomore hit a layup to initiate the Blue Devil explosion, and three minutes later, he completed his second three-point play of the afternoon to knot the score.
Of course, from that point on, Duhon stole the show, allowing the Blue Devils to silence a hostile crowd and take down an upbeat opponent and exorcise some demons in the process.
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