It wasn't a run, it was a marathon.
With barely less than 13 minutes remaining in the first half, St. John's (18-9) forward Kyle Cuffe found an open seam, and dropped in a layup to give the Red Storm a 20-13 lead over the Blue Devils (25-2). By the time they scored another field goal, the game was over, as Duke closed out the half with a 35-1 run en route to a 97-55 victory.
Trailing by seven after Cuffe's bucket, Duke turned to its player-of-the-year candidate to kick things into high gear. Jason Williams started the Blue Devils' run, converting a layup for the first two of his 26 points of the afternoon.
"They got a lot of easy buckets early on," Williams said. "That was the time when you've got to draw that line. We drew the line where they weren't getting anything else. It was a great team effort and we started to rebound. We can't be a second half team anymore. We learned that against Maryland."
Carlos Boozer--whose 20 point, 11 rebound performance marked his 11th double-double of the season--scored Duke's next five points to tie the game at 20-20 with 10 minutes remaining. From then on, he and the rest of the Blue Devils began to take control of the boards.
"We started off slow," Boozer said. "I think it was an 18-7 [rebounding] advantage that they had. We
Daniel Ewing knocked down a three-pointer, then Mike Dunleavy stole the ball and scored to put Duke ahead 25-20 as the Red Storm got an opportunity to catch its breath during a timeout with 7:26 left to play.
Coming out of the timeout, Williams brought the crowd to its feet, slamming home an alley-oop from Chris Duhon.
The Blue Devils continued to pound on St. John's. With 2:09 remaining in the half, Andre Stanley knocked down the first of his two free throws to leave the score 39-21. The Red Storm had gone 10:49 without scoring, as Duke ran off 26 consecutive points to put the game out of contention.
"I don't know, maybe it's because I'm Polish, but I don't think about those things," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the run. "I just think about the next exchange. I'm looking at the scoreboard and they haven't scored in a while. I'm not aware of runs like that. I'm aware of who they sub and what set they are using."
Stanley's free throw did nothing to stop the bleeding. The Blue Devils ran off nine unanswered points heading into intermission, including a three from Williams with four seconds remaining to put Duke up 48-21.
With the game well in hand, Krzyzewski used the second half to try out a variety of lineups. Virtually the entire team saw a fair number of minutes as the Blue Devils maintained control of the floor.
"In the second half, we didn't let up," Krzyzewski said. "That was very encouraging. We got the chance in the second half to use different combinations. That's what I was looking for, to make subs and two or three starters and just to look at some different things. I thought they responded pretty well."
The Blue Devils ran the lead to 42 points on the heels of Williams, Boozer and junior Dahntay Jones, who finished with 19 points.
"Dahntay has had a quietly spectacular year," Krzyzewski said. "He's been one of the top two or three kids in the league defensively. Tonight he scored in double figures and shot a high percentage. Dahntay is one of the really good players in our league."
Duke gave up no ground as Krzyzewski cleared the bench. The Blue Devils finished with a commanding victory that earned the admiration of St. John's coach Mike Jarvis.
"They take very talented kids and they play like they have no talent," Jarvis said. "They play harder than anyone else."
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