On a night that celebrated J.J. Redick's offensive brilliance, Duke's defense stepped up to give the Blue Devils a dominating win over ACC rival Wake Forest.
No. 2 Duke had led by as many as 22 points in the first half, but two minutes into the second half, the Demon Deacons cut the Blue Devil advantage to 11 for the second time in the period.
After two quick missed shots by Justin Gray that would have cut Duke's lead to single digits, Greg Paulus stripped Kevin Swinton and led the break, finding Lee Melchionni for a layup. On the next play, Redick stole the ball from Eric Williams, and Paulus found Sean Dockery for a deep jumper from the left wing to push Duke's advantage back up to 15.
Wake Forest (13-12, 1-10 in the ACC) would not come any closer the rest of the game, as the Blue Devils (24-1, 12-0) cruised to a 93-70 win in Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday night.
After allowing the Demon Deacons to shoot 57 percent from the field in the first half, Duke held Wake Forest to 11-for-40 shooting after the break. The Blue Devils frequently turned defense into offense, registering 12 steals and scoring 31 points off the Demon Deacons' 18 turnovers in the game.
"I thought our defense in the second half was outstanding," Krzyzewski said. "That's the best we have played in a couple weeks."
Redick, however, owned the night, as he broke the NCAA career three-point record with 7:56 remaining in the first half when he curled off a screen and buried a three over Gray. The senior went 4-for-9 from beyond the arc to finish the game with 416 career threes. The NCAA mark was previously 413, held by Curtis Staples, who attended the contest and awarded Redick with a game ball in a postgame celebration.
"To have J.J. break that record is an amazing thing," Krzyzewski said. "I was telling the team in the locker room afterwards when a player sets a record like that or a coach wins a certain amount of games, it is a team effort."
Redick did not rest on his laurels for a single play, as seconds after breaking the record, the senior jumped out in front of Harvey Hale's pass to Trent Strickland. Redick took the steal down the court and finished a three-point play to give Duke its largest lead at that point. The All-American racked up 33 points on 11-for-18 shooting.
Redick's record-setting night overshadowed perhaps the best game of Josh McRoberts' young career. McRoberts was perfect for the night, shooting 5-for-5 from both the floor and the free throw line. The freshman's 16-point game included two highlight-reel dunks, one off an alley-oop from Shelden Williams and the other over Kyle Visser.
"I think Josh's play in the first half, especially right before he got into foul trouble, just really ignited our team and just gave us a lot of energy," Redick said. "That's something that his plays can do-they're 'Wow' plays-and that alley-oop was one of the nastiest dunks I've seen in awhile. He was great tonight."
McRoberts was a point away from tying his career high despite playing only 20 minutes due to foul trouble. He picked up his fourth foul less than three minutes into the second half, but went on to play nearly 10 minutes without registering the dreaded fifth foul.
"He got disciplined when he got the fourth foul, but he has got to play that way when he has one foul, because we need him," Krzyzewski said.
Tuesday's game continued the recent trend of balanced scoring for the Blue Devils. Shelden Williams scored 16 and DeMarcus Nelson added 10 in what Krzyzewski called "his best game" of the season. It was the fourth time in five games that four Duke players have reached double figures.
The Blue Devils led by 19 with two minutes left in the first half, but Wake Forest went on a 9-1 run that spanned halftime to bring the score to 52-41.
"That seems to be our problem right now-we can't close out the first half," Redick said. "And that's a time that past teams that I've been on and past Duke teams have used to really put teams away."
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