PHILADELPHIA - With flashbulbs popping from all corners of the Wachovia Center as J.J. Redick stepped to the line with 1:28 to play, the senior calmly sank both free throws to become the ACC's all-time leading scorer.
Although Redick passed Wake Forest's Dickie Hemric to set the conference mark with 2,590 points, he struggled from the field for the second consecutive game as fellow All-American Shelden Williams carried the bulk of Duke's offensive load.
Williams finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds to guide the Blue Devils (27-1) to a 74-66 victory over Temple (15-11) Saturday afternoon.
"J.J. wasn't hitting his shots early, so we were trying to establish our inside game and hopefully concentrate their defenders on us and get J.J. some more open shots so that he could get the ball in the hole," Williams said. "In the first half it worked out well, especially for the big guys, because we started dominating the inside."
Facing a box-and-one in which the Owls were shadowing Redick, Duke fed the ball to the post on its first several possessions. Williams, whom Temple was guarding primarily with a single man for the first 20 minutes, connected on his first four shots to give the Blue Devils an 8-6 advantage.
The teams traded baskets for much of the physical first half, with neither team gaining a lead of more than seven points. While Williams was pouring in 18 first-half points on 6-for-8 shooting, the Owls' Mardy Collins countered with 12 points, and Duke held a 38-32 lead at the break.
Redick scored just two points in the period-his lowest first-half output of the season-and continually left his shots short. With less than three minutes left he had back-to-back open looks from long range, and both shots clanked off the front rim.
"They play a different style of defense than you're accustomed to, and they kept running two or three guys at J.J., which is the way to go," head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "I thought Shelden really stepped up. We had our openings and didn't take advantage of them."
Just 25 seconds into the second half, Redick finally got his only three-pointer of the game to fall, giving Duke a 10-point advantage, 43-33. The shot sparked an 8-2 run for the Blue Devils that was capped by a three-pointer from the left corner by point guard Greg Paulus.
Although Temple made a series of small spurts and kept the pressure on Duke the rest of the way, the Owls were never able to get within one possession. Trailing by 12 with 7:44 remaining, Temple scored the game's next seven points and closed the gap to five with more than six minutes left. Krzyzewski called a 30-second timeout to calm his players, and they responded, extending the margin back to double digits.
"We've been in close games throughout the whole season," Williams said. "We weren't rattled when they started to make a little bit of a run and come back in the game. We kind of gathered ourselves and said, 'We need to play strong.'"
Redick scored his seventh point with 11:06 left in the game, and the pro-Duke crowd snapped pictures every time he touched the ball the rest of the way in anticipation of his record-breaking shot. He drew a foul with less than two minutes remaining to earn a trip to the free-throw line and had a chance to break the scoring mark. The Wachovia Center erupted in cheers, as Redick sank the shots to pass Hemric.
Redick's 11 points were a season low, and he shot just 3-for-10 from the field, but he said he was not concerned with his shot. Redick said he also hadn't given serious thought to the significance of breaking the half-century old mark.
"I'm just thinking of ways I can get better, ways I can beat a box-and-one," Redick said.
NOTES:
With 12 rebounds, Williams moved past Christian Laettner and into second place on Duke's all-time rebounds chart. With 1,160 in his career, Williams is 82 rebounds behind Mike Gminski for the Blue Devil record.... It was the first game this season in which five Blue Devils reached double digits in scoring.... Former Blue Devils Shavlik Randolph, Chris Duhon and Luol Deng were all in attendance at the game. Randolph and the Philadelphia 76ers were hosting Duhon, Deng and the Chicago Bulls for a game at the Wachovia Center Saturday night.. Duke-bound Gerald Henderson, who was named a McDonald's All-American last week, was also in the stands.
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