With six high school All-Americans on its squad from all five positions, the men's basketball team comes at opponents at every angle. But with 1:52 left in the first half, the less-renowned Clemson Tigers (9-11, 2-7 in the ACC) were matching Duke's talent, tying the score at 27 after a three-pointer from Raleigh native Shawan Robinson.
Undeterred, the Blue Devils (20-1, 9-0) quickly countered with a three-pointer from J.J. Redick and an old-fashioned three-point play performed by Shelden Williams. But Duke put the dagger in Clemson's bid for two consecutive triangle area upsets by coming from yet another angle.
After a Williams rebound with nine seconds left in the half, savvy Chicago native Sean Dockery raced the ball up the court and swung the pumpkin to a squared-up Lee Melchionni. Just as the southpaw finished his follow-through 19-feet, 9-inches away from the hoop, the former walk-on was averaging 1.7 points per game and shooting 35 percent from behind the three-point line. After his shot splashed through the net, Duke held its greatest lead (nine) up to that point, and Clemson would never see another single-digit deficit.
"I come in ready to shoot," Melchionni said. "If I get an open look, I'm not afraid to take it."
Duke bred off the momentum from Melchionni's three-pointer in the second half, increasing its lead to 15 after two Redick free throws with 16:15 left in the game, leading to the Blue Devils' 81-55 victory. Redick and Luol Deng guided the nation's top team, scoring 23 and 22 points, respectively.
"Duke is relentless," first-year Clemson head coach Oliver Purnell said. "[The score was] 27-27 with a minute and a half to go in the first half, and that was a disastrous point for us. The last few minutes of the first half, the first two minutes of the second half really was the ball game in terms of them getting a working margin."
Deng carried the Blue Devils during its slow start, scoring 13 of Duke's first 27 points. The freshman has led Duke with an average of 20.3 points per game over the last three contests after not scoring in double figures in consecutive games for the first time in his career.
"Luol is playing great basketball," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I don't think there's any freshman playing any better on a winning team in the country."
The No. 1 Blue Devils blamed their flat start against last-place Clemson on their emotional 83-81 overtime win over archrival North Carolina Thursday night.
"Coming off a big win like that you try not to relax coming in against Clemson," junior Daniel Ewing said. "For the most part, we didn't start the game the way we should. There wasn't enough energy."
After leading comfortably by scoring the last nine points of the first half and the first five points of the second, Duke briefly allowed the Tigers, who were led by Sharrod Ford's 19 points, back in the game when Christ Hobbs converted a lay up that made the score 53-43 with 8:55 to go.
Just as soon as Clemson made the game interesting once again, Redick went on a massive scoring spurt. The sophomore scored 13 points in the next six minutes to give Duke a 21-point lead with 2:52 remaining.
Though the Blue Devils' 38th consecutive home win qualified for a sell-out, empty seats pervaded the gymnasium famous for its raucous chanting.
"We have to get rejuvenated and we hope Cameron can help rejuvenate us," Krzyzewski said. "I can tell you what--the last two places we played in were a heck of a lot louder than our place tonight because they wanted to beat us badly. How can we have empty seats in Cameron? With the No. 1 team in the country after just winning one of the most unbelievable games. That's disappointing."
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