It certainly wasn't the prettiest game in basketball history, but for the men's basketball team it was a win nonetheless.
Following a mid-week victory against arch rival North Carolina, No. 9 Duke (16-3, 6-3 in the ACC) won a defensive struggle against the Clemson Tigers (12-7, 2-7) 65-55 Sunday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"It was real difficult to score points tonight," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Both teams played real tough defense. Early in the game we had a opportunity to dictate tempo, and we couldn't put the ball in the basket."
The game was characterized by a series of offensive spurts. The Blue Devils broke out of the gate in the game's first seven minutes with a 16-5 run. After extending its lead to 21-9, Duke was mostly shut down by the Clemson defense for the next six minutes. The Tigers then pulled within four points at 25-21 with three and a half minutes remaining in the first half before Duke ended the period with a 9-4 run, creating a halftime score of 34-25.
Coming out in the second half with a greater energy level, the Tigers went on a 9-1 run to pull within one point at 35-34 with 17:04 remaining. Following a delay in the action while Duke medical teams attended to an ailing Cameron Crazy, the Blue Devils responded immediately with a 12-0 spurt of their own to establish a 47-34 edge at the 10:50 mark. The Tigers
The 12-0 run in the second half was ignited by a three-point shot by sophomore guard Daniel Ewing with 16:50 to go. Three minutes later, after a block by freshman big man Shelden Williams, Ewing threw an outlet pass to Chris Duhon, who quickly dished the ball off to a streaking Williams for a huge slam dunk. Williams came off the bench to provide nine points, seven rebounds and one block in only 11 minutes of play.
"Shelden gave us a huge boost... He gave us a physical presence in there, battling for rebounds, making free throws," Krzyzewski said.
Another key to Duke's second-half run was the play of swingman Dahntay Jones, who scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in the final twenty minutes. While Jones struggled from the floor going 3-for-12, he was nevertheless able to record his 17th double-figure scoring game of the season thanks to his free throw shooting. Jones came out driving hard to the basket in the second half and wound up at the line twelve times, making eight of those shots.
"Hitting some free throws got us going," said Jones. "It gave us the ability to pull away. I was just trying to do everything I could to help us out."
While the offenses struggled to maintain consistency, the defenses were dominant throughout. The Blue Devils, employing a full-court man-to-man
"I thought it was an extremely physical game, very similar to the game we played in Clemson," Tigers head coach Larry Shyatt said. "Our guys did a lot of good things and a lot of right things on defense, but unfortunately were forced into a lot of errors on offense."
A major component of the Blue Devils' victory was the play of Casey Sanders. The senior center finished just shy of his first ever collegiate double-double after pulling down a career-high 14 boards and adding eight points.
"I try to get as close to the ball as possible," Sanders said of his rebounding. "If there's any way I can get it, I'm going to try to get it. Tonight was just a night where I got close to it enough times to actually get 14."
Krzyzewski was pleased with his team's effort and was optimistic about its future.
"There's a lot of newness on this basketball team, so for us to be in this position at this time, I think, is really good," he said. "Our kids have done a real good job, and we can get better."
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