WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For 13 minutes, Georgetown had top-ranked Duke on the ropes, and it appeared as though the hangover from an emotional win at Maryland might be too much for the Blue Devils to overcome. Then the Chris & Shelden Show took over, and Duke got well in a hurry. With Chris Duhon hitting three-pointers and penetrating the lane
repeatedly, and Shelden Williams scoring at will in the post en route to a career-high 26 points, the Blue Devils closed the first half with a 27-5 run and never looked back.
In front of a sold-out MCI Center crowd, Duke (16-1, 5-0 in the ACC) rode its formidable inside-outside combo to a dominating 85-66 victory that was far more lopsided than the final score revealed.
"We knew that with the game being sold out, Georgetown would come out with a lot of energy, and they did," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I think they knocked us back early. We kind of hung in there, and then our defense really took over and what was a close game was all of a sudden over twenty points. It was kind of shocking that the score was [48-24] at halftime, because I thought Georgetown was playing well."
The turning point came with seven minutes left in the first half, after Georgetown (11-4, 2-3 in the Big East) had pulled to within 21-19 on a Darrel Owens three-pointer. While the Hoyas went cold, the Blue Devils launched a three-point barrage, beginning with a conventional three-point play by Williams off a Duhon feed. J.J. Redick followed with his first basket of the day from beyond the arc, and after a Luol Deng fast-break lay up, Duhon calmly swished three-pointers on consecutive possessions. With that, the Blue Devils had pushed their lead to 35-22, and the plethora of Duke faithful in the crowd of 20,193 were on its feet.
"I think when Chris started hitting his outside shot, that just got us going, and we fed off that," said Williams, who added five blocked shots and four rebounds to his scoring binge. "We all know that he can drive well, and finish and dish off. It gives us a big advantage when he is hitting his outside shot, [too]."
While Duhon emerged as a scoring threat, it was perhaps Williams' career night that ultimately doomed the Hoyas. On the heels of a disappointing six-point performance in the victory over Maryland Wednesday night, Williams continually established good position in the paint and was rewarded with easy lay ups and short jumpers, allowing him to convert 12 of 15 shots.
His inside dominance took Courtland Freeman, Georgetown's best inside threat, out of the game. Freeman received his fourth foul early in the second half, and fouled out with 12:42 to go. The highlight of Williams' afternoon, however, may have been the one shot he took from outside the paint. With the clock running down at the end of the first half, Williams found himself with the ball in his hands past the three-point line. Without hesitating, he tossed up a jumper, and watched as the ball swished through the net moments before the first-half buzzer sounded.
"Williams was very effective down in the post," Georgetown head coach Craig Esherick said. "We had no answer for him, absolutely none.... That game was over early. But for some substitutions by Mike [Krzyzewski], it could've gotten a little uglier than that."
At the beginning of the game, however, it was Duke, not Georgetown, that lacked answers. With J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing struggling to get open shots against bigger and quicker defenders, the Blue Devils strained to get into a rhythm offensively. Meanwhile, the Hoyas fed off the intensity of their first sellout crowd since 1996. At the time, Georgetown was led by a shifty point guard named Allen Iverson.
"For the first ten minutes, it didn't just look intense, it looked like we were going to get our butts beat," Krzyzewski said.
Instead, the Blue Devils survived their second straight game as the top-ranked team in the nation, and return to Durham from an impressive five-day stay in the Washington, D.C., area riding a 13-game winning streak.
While the Blue Devils are playing as well as any team in the country, winning by an average of more than 23 points during their current streak, they're mindful not to get carried away by their success.
"You don't ever want to get to the point where you think you're cruising, because that's when you get beat," Ewing said. "We have to put these games behind us, get a little rest, and get back on the ACC track."
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