J.J. Redick buried the front end of a pair of foul shots and Daniel Ewing grabbed the ball after an ugly Davidson three-point attempt as the men's basketball team survived the Davidson Wildcats 95-80 Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"We feel fortunate to win," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Our kids did some real pressure things down the stretch, which was important because Davidson never gave up."
After a rough opening in which the Wildcats (0-1) led the Blue Devils (2-0) by as many as five and hung with heavily favored Duke for the majority of the first half, the Blue Devils blew things open in the second, capping off a 17-10 run with a falling down trey by Redick from the right hand corner with 13:52 remaining.
The freshman, who was fouled on the play, then drained his free throw, and a Davidson turnover followed by a couple of Shavlik Randolph baskets from the charity stripe gave Duke a 75-56, their largest of the game.
"We're a young team and we got so excited like all of a sudden we were going to blow somebody out of there," Krzyzewski said. "We let them back from 17 points to 10. We thought we were going to win
The Wildcats stormed back, scoring nine unanswered points and pulling within eight of the Blue Devils with a little less than three minutes left.
On the next possession, with Duke now playing a stall-type offense, Dahntay Jones, missed a layup, but Shelden Williams grabbed the loose ball and went up for the putback, only to miss again--a problem Krzyzewski said his team had all night.
Davidson guard Peter Anderer then threw the ball out of bounds, but after killing another half-minute, Chris Duhon's three rattled out. Ten seconds later Wildcat Wayne Bernard, who led all scorers with 28 hit a jumper, pulling the Wildcats within six, 86-80.
The 'Cats then went into foul mode and after Redick's 1-for-2 performance-he said that the missed shot "felt better" than the one he made-Davidson traded misses as Duhon, who came within two rebounds of a triple-double, racking up 20 points, 10 assists and eight boards, and Randolph came through at the line.
"They were kicking our butts inside," Randolph said. "They were ready for us and it took us a while to respond, and it was very difficult to defend. They got a high percentage of shots. They played a great game.... We didn't think it was going be as close as it was."
The Blue Devils were plagued most of the night by foul trouble and turnovers inside. Jones, who had led Duke offensively both in its games in London and earlier scrimmages in Cameron, found himself on the bench with four fouls with less than three minutes gone in the second half.
Meanwhile the Blue Devils kept forcing the ball inside, where Duke big men accumulated both fouls and turnovers. By the end of the night Randolph had three fouls and centers Casey Sanders and Williams both tallied four.
"Obviously if there's a double or triple team there's somebody open, and obviously we didn't take that route," Krzyzewski said. "You know in New York City when you're going over the Triboro Bridge and there are a number of tollbooths. I always go to the one on the outside with the least cars.... I take the easiest route. Tonight we looked for the one that had like 30 cars in it and we said 'damn it I'm paying my toll at this tollbooth,' and we did, to the tune of about 21 turnovers."
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