There's a number of ways to get open in basketball. You can curl off a screen, make a backdoor cut, or if you're Duke swingman Dahntay Jones, you can step behind the three-point line.
Wake Forest knew it had to pick its poison Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and it chose to keep an extra defender inside while Jones roamed free around the perimeter. Judging by the first-half results, the Demon Deacons should have picked another strategy.
Jones used the open space not only to shoot uncontested jumpers, but also to set screens and create a clear path to the basket for rebounding opportunities. By halftime, the Trenton, N.J., native had scored 18 points and added five offensive rebounds as the Blue Devils headed to the locker room up 60-48.
"At times my eyes got big and I said OWow, that's a wide-open guy,'" forward Mike Dunleavy said. "They were leaving him so open it was almost disrespectful, and I thought he did a good job of making them pay for it."
For the game, Jones shot 8-of-14 for 22 points, his highest scoring output of the season.
Jones understood why Wake Forest left him so open.
"People are trying to shut down Jason [Williams] and Mike so much that Carlos [Boozer], Chris [Duhon] and I have to just step up offensively and make
"They have to try and stop someone. If they leave me open, then I'm going to shoot."
Although that statement might have been what Wake Forest wanted to hear before the game, that was before the Demon Deacons saw Jones' shooting help the Blue Devils reach 60 points in the first 20 minutes.
"I thought Dahntay was outstanding," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "People keep playing off of him and we're using that to our advantage. It does give him free runs to the offensive boards, it makes him a free screener, and I have confidence in his outside shot when he's taken that set shot.... He took advantage of all those things today."
Jones' offensive outburst was more impressive because the junior passed up a number of open looks for the benefit of the offense.
"Because he's such a good kid he hasn't taken [the outside shot] as much because he knows we have other shooters," Krzyzewski said.
But Jones can shoot. Coming into Saturday's game, Jones was hitting 72.5 percent of his free throws, second on the team to Boozer, and Jones scored in double-digits for the 11th time this season. Still, the Demon Deacons must have felt that giving Jones an outside shot is better
"With us, you always have to leave somebody open," Dunleavy said. "We have players who always have a mismatch and can break you down, so you're going to have to leave guys open. If Dahntay is the guy, that's fine. He's going to hit shots. He's not going to hit all of them--nobody does--but he's going to hit shots, get free throws, get offensive rebounds, and do the things that he does.
"I guess teams are playing the percentages on him, but I don't think that's going to work."
Although Duke is happy to have all five starters become scoring threats, Jones knows that his main role is still on the defensive end.
"Defense is always my primary aspect right now," Jones said. "But that's for everybody--it's not just me, it's Jason, it's Mike--our defense is what makes our offense run."
Less than two days after shutting down Maryland shooting guard Juan Dixon, Jones matched up against Wake Forest star forward Josh Howard.
"I don't think there's a better one-on-one straight-up defender in the country than Dahntay," Dunleavy said. "Guys just don't go off against him, whether it be shooters or drivers."
Wake Forest discovered Saturday that Jones can hurt opponents on offense as well.
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