Stellar second half lifts Duke

WINSTON-SALEM - The first half stat sheet spelled doom for the Blue Devils.

It showed that Duke led Wake Forest, 48-39, through 20 minutes in Winston-Salem, but little else was positive. The Demon Deacons had dominated the Blue Devils on the offensive glass, grabbing 13 offensive rebounds. Duke had turned the ball over 11 times, five of which had been committed by point guard Greg Paulus. Star forward Shelden Williams had played just seven minutes, picking up three fouls.

Just about the only thing the Blue Devils had done well was shoot, especially from three. They had hit over 60 percent of their shots, and were 9-for-16 from behind the arc. The Demon Deacons, meanwhile, were shooting below 40 percent. It was hard to envision an ACC squad remaining that cold all game, and if Wake Forest shot any better in the second half, they would blow the Blue Devils out of the gym.

"We did not put any bodies on them and they were crashing the boards like crazy," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We were very loose with the ball, but we kept in the game. We had a lot of youthful turnovers that translated into points for Wake Forest."

At the start of the second half, the Demon Deacons were shooting better and Duke was shooting worse. Wake Forest connected on four of its first six shots, and a 9-3 run in the first three minutes of the half cut Duke's lead to three. Included in that run was yet another offensive rebound, another foul committed by Williams, his fourth, and two more turnovers.

It sure looked like the Blue Devils were lucky in racing out to that first half lead; their hot shooting could not sustain them against a team that had been outplaying them in every other facet of the game.

But from that point forward, Duke stopped just shooting better than Wake and started playing better.

It all started with Trent Stickland's missed dunk. The Wake Forest senior was out in front of everyone, with a clear lane to the basket, and an opportunity to cut Duke's lead to three with a monster slam. The Blue Devils, despite no chance to stop Strickland, did not quit on the play.

Sean Dockery raced back on defense, saying later that he was simply hoping to prevent Strickland from doing something "too crazy, to make the crowd go crazy." Maybe Dockery's hustle forced Strickland to rush, because he clanged his reverse dunk attempt.

Duke forward Josh McRoberts also hadn't given up on the play, and he corralled the rebound-no offensive board for Wake Forest this time-and dribbled upcourt. He found J.J. Redick for a three-pointer, a bucket that started a 14-2 run that put Wake Forest out of the game.

After Strickland's missed dunk, the Blue Devils stopped giving up offensive rebounds, allowing just one more for the rest of the game. Dockery, a 6-foot-2 guard, had more offensive rebounds by himself than every Wake Forest player in the game's final 17 minutes.

"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 also solved its turnover woes, committing just three turnovers in the game's final 17 minutes while forcing the Demon Deacons into six. Paulus overcame his shaky start, playing turnover-free in the game's final stages and dishing out two assists.

"We're not going to out-talent anybody," Redick said. "We have to rely on playing harder than everybody."

Sunday night in Winston-Salem, the Blue Devils did just that.