CLEMSON, S.C. - With 10:48 left in No. 4 Duke's crushing loss at No. 10 Clemson Wednesday, head coach Mike Krzyzewski made a radical substitution-five guys in, five guys out.
But on this night, it didn't matter which five Blue Devils were on the floor in Littlejohn Coliseum. Duke was outplayed in every aspect of the game, and suffered a humiliating 74-47 defeat at the hands of the Tigers (19-2, 5-2 in the ACC)-its first loss in its last 10 games at Clemson's home arena.
The margin of defeat marked Duke's largest since 1990, when the Blue Devils lost by 30 in the NCAA Tournament final, and 47 points represented its lowest offensive output since 1995.
"[Clemson] played great, the crowd was great, their team was great, coaching was great and we were just the opposite in every way," a somber Krzyzewski said after the game. "My hat goes off to them, and we didn't compete with them tonight. That's not a good thing."
Duke (19-3, 6-2) has certainly played better games than it did Wednesday-the Blue Devils shot just 30.8 percent from the field, including a 3-for-13 performance from beyond the 3-point line-yet it was Clemson's successful press defense and its balanced offense that spelled doom for Duke.
The Blue Devils turned the ball over four times in the opening minutes because of the Tigers' harassing full-court press, and never really looked comfortable bringing the ball up the court. Neither Greg Paulus nor Nolan Smith had much success in that respect, and Duke committed as many turnovers, 16, as it had made field goals.
Once Clemson got the ball, it looked to its best post player, forward Trevor Booker. Booker led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and the junior's array of fadeaway jumpers, hook shots in the lane and crowd-inspiring dunks on offense-in addition to his toughness and shot-blocking ability on defense-helped stem Duke's few runs and keep it off the boards.
Booker's play Wednesday was reminiscent of the game he played in last March's ACC Tournament semifinal, when his 9-of-11 shooting day led Clemson to a victory against Duke in the teams' last meeting.
"I just like playing against [Duke]," Booker said. "Those are ESPN games. I got off to a good start, I fed off the crowd, and I just kept rolling all through the game."
Clemson's outside presence came in the form of Terrence Oglesby, a fan favorite who made 5-of-11 attempts from beyond the arc. Oglesby often passed up seemingly open shots to attempt more contested ones, but his long-range shooting prevented Duke from crowding Booker on the block. Instead, kickouts to Oglesby resulted in three after three, and his five makes were more than the entire Duke squad.
The Blue Devils managed to stay in the game for a little while thanks largely to Gerald Henderson. The junior led Duke in scoring for the seventh time in eight games with 16 points, and scored 11 of those before halftime to keep his team within reach of the Tigers. Even with that strong showing, Duke trailed by 12 at the break. And with the Blue Devils' Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer struggling mightily all game-the pair combined for nine points on 3-of-16 shooting-that lead stayed in double digits for the entire second half.
The loss came exactly a week after the Blue Devils' last conference road game, a trip to then-No. 6 Wake Forest. In that game, Duke played poorly for most of the night, but fought back from a 13-point deficit in the last eight minutes to put itself in position to win. On Wednesday, the Blue Devils showed signs of life in the second half just once-a 7-1 run around the 10-minute mark to cut a 23-point lead to 17-but an Oglesby three and huge Booker dunk kept the crowd alive and Duke at bay.
The Blue Devils return to Cameron Indoor Stadium Saturday to face Miami, and Krzyzewski said he hopes his team remembers a performance forward Dave McClure called "disgraceful."
"[We] shouldn't forget this loss," Krzyzewski said. "This is as bad as you can play. You don't just say, 'Oh, that's OK.' You can't do that, not when you're wearing a Duke uniform."
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