D...D...D...Defense.
Du...Du...Du...Duhon.
An unlikely coincidence? Maybe, but the sophomore sensation from Slidell, La., did his best to prove it as fact. Duhon, Dahntay Jones and the rest of the Blue Devils all chipped in to put the clamps on Red Storm star Marcus Hatten in Duke's crushing win over St. John's. The improbable 35-1 Duke run to close the first half took center stage over other notable game events, like Mike Dunleavy's Statue of Liberty dunk, or Casey Sanders' whoops-alley-oop dunk or even Mark Causey's career stat-line in about 90 seconds of play.
The run went from 12:58 to the end of the second half. For those counting at home, that's a solid 13 minutes without a field goal.
"He is an excellent defender," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Duhon, whose defensive prowess can be overshadowed by the work of teammate Dahntay Jones. "We opened up on other guys, so when Hatten looked at the court, he didn't see space. Our whole game plan was cued to stopping him. We wanted to make him a decision-maker with a pass, rather than a decision-maker with a shot. They're not as diversified in scoring. They have to get it from one or two guys."
After outhustling the Blue Devils for the first seven minutes of the game, the Red Storm jumped out to a 20-13 lead. Krzyzewski called a timeout, gave one of his signature red-faced, lectures and Duke never looked back. After nailing every shot they could possibly imagine in those first seven minutes, the Johnnies would score a total of 35 the rest of the way.
Thirty-five points in 33 minutes won't win in high school, much less in college versus arguably the best team in America in arguably the best gym anywhere.
OWe played very well defensively after they gave us a hit at the start of the game," Krzyzewski said. "They have overall pretty good team quickness, and we didn't match up real well with them to start the ball game. Then we locked into them, and that defense led to some offense. They missed some easy shots too, but overall our defense was pretty good."
After the game Krzyzewski attributed St. John's miscues from the field to missing good shots as well as the increased Duke defensive intensity, it was obvious the latter was the major reason. Once Duke set itself on controlling its defensive boards about midway through the first half, St. John's' reliance on athleticism as its only form of offense soon grew out its existence. Duhon continued to deny Hatten, the Red Storm's most potent scoring threat, all the way out to the midcourt stripe, leaving the rest of the team in the unfamiliar position of creating on its own and even not looking for Hatten when he would finally manage to squeeze open. And as St. John's continued to force up ill-advised shots in one-on-one situations, Duke's lead continued to grow more and more out of control.
"I did not want to give him any easy buckets," Duhon said. "I wanted every shot that he took to be hard with a hand in his face. I had great help from my teammates. He's a unique player. He's very effective. It was a challenge for me to get a good read on him."
By the time Andre Stanley nailed a free throw to get the Red Storm over that infamous 20-point scoring hump to the sarcastic applause of the Duke crowd, 11 minutes had elapsed. Two more scoreless minutes would go by until halftime with the St. John's faithful already having stopped caring about this non-conference game.
"You can't play for 10 minutes, then not play for 10 minutes against a team like Duke," St. John's coach Mike Jarvis said. "The 13-minute thing, that's happened before, but [then] you weren't playing against Duke. It was painful."
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