WINSTON-SALEM -- Complete with two technical fouls within the first eight minutes of the game, players confronting each other nose-to-nose, and football-like scrambles for loose rebounds, Duke and Wake Forest muscled through a hard-fought battle that ended with the Demon Deacons' students pounding their feet on the court of Joel Coliseum. No. 15 Wake Forest (16-6, 6-5 in the ACC) pulled out a 90-84 victory over the third-ranked Blue Devils, furthering Duke's (21-3, 10-2) recent frustrations on the road.
Still, head coach Mike Krzyzewski was far from disappointed.
"I have no faults with my basketball team," he said. "They do play hard most of the time, but they played really hard tonight...I didn't know that the game was turned around. I think the game was played hard the whole way. This was the most physical game we've played in the conference so far."
From the time the Deacon's tied the game up at 61 at 11:56 in the second half with a game changing three point shot from Vytas Danelius, it was a neck-and-neck race to the buzzer. Chris Paul was able to break loose the way he hadn't been able to when he faced the Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Paul split Duke's perimeter defense and pulled up for a short jumper to even the score at 63 and then delivered Wake Forest's first lead with a layup down the middle of the paint which led to a goaltending penalty on Loul Deng. With big layups from Deng and critical treys from Chris Duhon, the Blue Devils were able to stay tight on the scoreboard. Ultimately Paul was able to take matters into his own hands with a three, a layup over Shelden Williams and a pair of free throws during three consecutive possessions. Paul finished with 23 points and eight assists.
"Their kids played really well," Krzyzewski said. "They made big plays. They drove the ball and got fouled they made their free throws, and that set up some of their jump shots. We were trying to drive the ball also, and we weren't as successful in our driving."
From the beginning, Duke was resilient when faced with the Deacon's board attack. Wake Forest out-rebounded the Blue Devils on the offensive end 12-5 in the first half and received 12 points off second chances. Still, Duke's bigmen were far from quieted offensively. Shavlik Randolph and Nick Horvath combined for 12 points by the end of the half and allowed the Blue Devils' offense to utilize Deng's jump shot off the post.
"Nick [Horvath] has been playing well in practice and when two big guys go in we can use Loul [Deng] on the perimeter and that gives us a big look," Krzyzewski said. "While we're trying to do, we're also trying to get better
for next month, and I think some of the things we're doing were good tonight and will be even better if we stick to them."
But Duke's response to the Deacon's aggressive basket attacks late in the first half came mainly on big shots from Daniel Ewing. When the Deacons began picking up momentum after two bleacher-stomping alley-oops from a Paul-Trent Strickland duo, Ewing delivered crucial three-point shots from the wing. In the final five minutes of the first half, Wake Forest was quickly choping away at the Blue Devil's nine point lead, after Nick Horvath
tipped in a jump shot from Ewing at the elbow. On the next possession, the Deacons dominated the offensive boards, as they had earlier in the half, maintaing possession after five missed attempts until Eric Williams muscled his way into a slam dunk.
"We let up a little bit in the second half on the defensive end," Ewing said. "They were making a lot of shots early in the second half and it gave them a lot of momentum."
Williams blocked Chris Duhon's next run at the basket which led to a quick foul on the other end--J.J. Redick's third. After Justin Gray sunk a free throw and a critical three from Taron Downey, Wake Forest cut the lead to three.
Just two possessions later, though, Ewing pulled up and sunk a long and important three point shot after Deng nearly gave up the ball under the basket. Duke's six point lead gave the team leverage to enter the second half with a five point lead.
Still, the Deacon's were able to hold Reddick, who got in early foul trouble, to just two points--free throws after the technical foul charged against Wake Forest's bench--and, after the tie at 61, never dropped in intensity.
The Blue Devils realized that their defense was not what it need to be Wednesday night.
"I don't think it has to do with execution, I think it all comes back down to our defense," Duhon said. "Our defense hasn't been the same the past four games, and we have to get back to that to be champions. The energy we brought today was great, and against most teams we probably would have won, but we have to go up even higher now. I think we know that and we just have to get better."
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