Racing down the court pursued by Virginia"s J.R. Reynolds, J.J. Redick pulled up beyond the arc, dribbled behind his back to lose Reynolds and hit an off-balance fadeaway, giving Duke a 15-point lead.
Redick, senior Daniel Ewing and junior Shelden Williams carried the No. 5 Blue Devils (13-0, 3-0 in the ACC) to their 13th consecutive victory in an 80-66 win over the Cavaliers (9-5, 0-4) in Cameron Indoor Stadium Sunday night.
'Our big three were big tonight,' head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. 'Our bench was good, but our big three won the ballgame, so I"m pleased with that.'
Redick led Duke offensively with a game-high 28 points, 20 of which came in the second half. Williams nearly notched a triple-double, with 16 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high nine blocks, and Ewing added 17 points of his own.
Down seven points midway through the half, Ewing drove baseline for a layup. On the subsequent possession, Williams denied the Cavaliers on two consecutive shots, setting up an 8-0 Duke run that gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the game.
'The coaches were kind of in my ear about us as a team not being as aggressive as we should have been,' Ewing said. 'I just stepped up and made some plays and got some of the other guys into it.'
Having gained momentum, the Blue Devils slowed the tempo and continued their run over the next eight minutes, taking a 32-23 lead. During that span Ewing sent a no-look fast break pass to Redick, who buried a three, giving Duke a lead it would never relinquish.
Up six points to start the second half, the Blue Devils went on an 11-2 run over the first four minutes. Williams began the spurt when he spun off his defender into the paint for a dunk. But it was Redick who really turned it on during the final 20 minutes, shooting 6-of-7, including a perfect 4-of-4 from behind the arc.
'We did a good job on Redick in the first half, but the second half, he went nuts,' Virginia head coach Pete Gillen said.
Redick, like the rest of the Blue Devils, got off to a slow start, failing to score in the first 13 minutes.
'Tonight I just wanted to establish myself,' Redick said. 'I know UVa has a lot of trouble guarding people off screens, and they certainly did tonight. Once I got going, I felt like I could hit a lot of shots.'
The Cavaliers set a blistering pace early, and the Blue Devils could not keep up. The quickness of freshman guard Sean Singletary, who scored a team-high 21 points, allowed Virginia to take advantage of every opportunity it could, run the court and stifle Duke early with pressure defense. Gary Forbes scored seven of his team"s first 17 points, including several putbacks, as Virginia jumped out to a 17-10 lead nine minutes into the game.
'I thought we started the game very casual,' Redick said. 'On offense, we were turning the ball over and weren"t taking shots with a lot of confidence.'
The Blue Devils took better care of the ball in the second half, committing only four turnovers compared to nine in the first half. On the defensive end, Duke held the Cavaliers to 34.9 percent shooting and Williams successfully limited Virginia"s captain Elton Brown to 11 points.
NOTES
Shavlik Randolph returned to the Blue Devil lineup, but played only five minutes.... Ewing left the game with a minute and a half remaining in the first half when he hurt his ankle, but the senior returned at the start of the second half.... Duke shot 55.6 percent in the second-half including 5-of-7 from three-point range.... Virginia grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and outscored the Blue Devils 18-9 in second chance points.
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