Late in the first half Tuesday night, No. 8 Duke could not seem to get itself in gear.
Greg Paulus and Jon Scheyer, usually two of Duke's best free-throw shooters, had shot 3-of-7 from the charity stripe, Paulus and Nolan Smith had a combined zero assists and the team had converted 12-of-32 field goals up to that point in a performance that reeked of its Monday win in which many players were disappointed in the offensive effort.
But even though they had not clicked on all cylinders, the Blue Devils still led by 13 with 2:27 left. And once the dunks came thundering in and the emotional intensity roared, it was over.
Duke (2-0) used a 22-3 run that spanned the end of the first half and the first minute of the second half en route to a 97-54 victory over Georgia Southern (1-1) in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The Blue Devils, having won their two opening contests of the 2K Sports Classic, advance to the semifinals in New York City and will play either Southern Illinois or Massachusetts Nov. 20.
"Our guys just hustled, and they made some great hustle plays, and all of a sudden, it was like a pinball machine-boom, boom, boom," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "The lights were going on and [I thought,] 'Holy mackerel, we're up by a lot of points."
The avalanche of points took off when Region MVP Kyle Singler's jump shot rattled in, giving the Blue Devils a 17-point advantage. Tyler Troupe forced a jumper for the Eagles, which clanked out. On the ensuing possession, Scheyer nailed his only 3-pointer of the period for the team's first 20-point lead, but the defining sequence had yet to occur.
Troupe hurried yet another shot as Dave McClure swooped in for the rebound. He then nailed a wide-open Smith down the court, who brought the house-and Georgia Southern's faint upset hopes-down with a tomahawk dunk. The Eagles called timeout, but by then, it was a minute too late, as Duke had found its fire and energy to put them away for good.
"We just folded the last three minutes of the first half," Georgia Southern head coach Jeff Price said. "Our team was not ready for a game of this caliber. They just pushed us out of everything we wanted to do."
The players were noticeably more demonstrative after Smith's tomahawk, as the sophomore guard slapped the floor and his teammates looked more focused.
From that point forward, Krzyzewski gave his bench players plenty of playing time, as Singler left for good with 16:22 remaining and Henderson and Scheyer also finished their days at the 14:27 mark. Singler led all scorers with 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting, while Henderson added 11 points and Scheyer dished out 7 assists. Smith and Paulus both finished in double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Elliot Williams stood out most among the freshman class, grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds, often times outleaping his own center for the board and carving up Georgia Southern's defense at will.
The 43-point win could have been even larger if the Blue Devils' focus had carried over to the free-throw line. For the game, Duke shot 25-of-49 from the foul line, and really, it was worse than that-the Eagles committed three lane violations on missed free throws by Duke.
"You're not going to play the perfect game," Singler said. "We did shoot poorly from the line, but I think we were playing pretty hard. And there's kind of a stop-action with shooting free throws and you can rush your shot."
But on a night when the team played at a subpar level for nearly an entire half, it didn't need the perfect game-but, nonetheless, almost got one for the last 22 minutes.
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