Men's Basketball Game v. Wake Forest
WINSTON-SALEM - With Duke clinging to a five-point lead with less than 16 minutes remaining in Sunday's ACC contest, Trent Strickland stood at the three-point line with an unbelievable opportunity to blow the roof off Joel Coliseum.
As the senior drove to the hoop without a single Duke defender to challenge him, Strickland swooped under the rim and clanged a flashy reverse dunk off the rim, rather than simply flushing the ball for an easy two.
The ball ricocheted into the hands of Josh McRoberts, who drove up the court and tossed a pass to an expectant JJ Redick. Redick buried a three to push the Duke lead back to eight, snatching the momentum from a Wake Forest squad that, just moments ago, seemed ready to take control of the game.
"When Duke got up on us, it dragged us down," Wake Forest senior Eric Williams said. "All of a sudden, it didn't seem like we had as much energy as we had in the first half and that kills teams. You can't let a team see you sweat. If you do they'll feed on it and they'll just run on you."
The Demon Deacons never recovered from Strickland's gaffe, as the Blue Devils immediately blew the game open with a 14-2 run over the next five minutes. After that, Duke (14-0, 2-0 in the ACC) cruised to an 82-64 victory over Wake Forest (11-3, 0-1).
The Blue Devils relied on strong outside shooting to overcome early foul trouble that hampered McRoberts and senior Shelden Williams. The backcourt tandem collected two fouls each within the first four minutes of the game.
"I thought we played extremely well with a lot of the adversity we had with fouls," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "If our guys don't hit shots or make free throws, then we're in big trouble."
Redick, who finished with 32 points, and fellow senior Lee Melchionni, who tallied 17, led the charge on offense with five three's each. The Blue Devils knocked down 14-of-28 from behind the arc while the Demon Deacons managed just 2-of-13.
Krzyzewski singled out Melchionni's contribution as an important showing for the senior, who has struggled shooting the ball at times this season.
"Lee was ones of the best players on the court tonight," Krzyzewski said. "He played with great energy and he wanted the ball. He played like a senior-he hasn't played like that this year-. He was better tonight than he was any time last year."
Aside from strong outside shooting, Duke's second half dismantling of Wake Forest was a result of better rebounding. With Williams and McRoberts handicapped by foul trouble, the Demon Deacons dominated the Blue Devils on the boards in the first half, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds while Duke managed just 10 rebounds total.
"There was just an emphasis at halftime that we all needed to rebound," Redick said. "They just killed us on the boards in the first half, we had to really focus on rebounding as a team. It was just a greater emphasis put on by Coach, definitely."
Duke's focus showed in the second half, as Wake Forest managed just two offensive boards in the period.
The Blue Devil's victory over the Demon Deacons marked the first time Redick, Williams and the rest of Duke's seniors have won in Joel Coliseum. Krzyzewski stressed the importance of winning in such a hostile environment and added that preparation and anticipation for such games is something that he tries to stress with all of his teams.
"I told them before we left campus, 'All the banners that you see in Cameron have not been won in Cameron,'" Krzyzewski said. "You have to learn to like to play on the road and that's what I try to teach every team."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.