DURHAM — Virginia’s Pete Gillen, the ACC’s unchallenged king of comedy, has a team that’s no joke this year.
But Duke got the last laugh on Sunday night, punching out Gillen’s Cavaliers 94-81 and leaving the wisecracking coach with a stunned expression and precious few postgame
punchlines.
“In the second half, we got a little flustered, our defense broke down and then we started taking the ball out of the net a lot,” offered a subdued Gillen.
Seventh-ranked Virginia (14-3, 4-3) lost its seventh straight at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but duked it out on even terms with the top-ranked Blue Devils (18-1, 6-1) for the first 20 minutes.
Duke experienced some of its worst shooting of the season in that first half, clanging away at 35.7 percent. The Devils salvaged a 42-all tie at intermission, only because they shot 18-for-23 from the line.
“Virginia made us look bad in the first half,” admitted Duke coach Mike
Krzyzewski.
Coach K doesn’t particularly enjoy looking unsightly at home and on national TV, and read the riot act in the locker room.
“Can’t tell you exactly what he said, because the words that came out of Coach’s mouth aren’t proper for publication,” chuckled Duke guard Jason Williams, who led the scoring parade with 27. “But that just shows what a great coach he is. He knows how to get us motivated.”
“We had no emotion, no defense and no fight in the first half,” admitted Blue Devil guard Chris
Duhon, who racked up seven assists. “Second half? Different story.”
The second half brought back echoes of Duke’s recent wipeouts of Maryland and Wake Forest.
Duke, which beat the Cavs for the 13th time in the last 14 meetings, turned Virginia inside-out by getting the ball inside. The Devils launched just seven 3-pointers in the second half. Instead, Williams, Duhon and Dahntay Jones penetrated against Virginia’s man-to-man defense and located monstrous Carlos Boozer for easy scores.
“The second half, we attacked much better,” said Krzyzewski, allowing himself a small smile.
Boozer, who scored 25, topped 20 for the sixth straight time since Duke’s loss at Florida State.
Hamstrung by gruesome foul trouble, there was little Virginia could do to stop Duke, which shot 67.9 percent after Krzyzewski’s little chat. Gillen lost key reserve Jason Clark four minutes into in the second half with five fouls and All-ACC candidates Travis Watson and Chris Williams were burdened with foul woes the entire game.
“Travis is the leading rebounder in the ACC,” said Gillen. “He was on the floor seven minutes in the first half. To me, that’s the key to the game. Yeah, we thought about going zone to protect our people. We tried it one possession. It took Duke about 1.2 seconds to score.”
Virginia scored the first hoop of the second half for a 44-42 lead, but Duhon drove and dished to Boozer for a three-point play that gave Duke the lead right back at 45-44.
On Virginia’s next possession, Dunleavy drew a charge on Chris Williams for his fourth foul. Twenty-three seconds later Watson received his fourth personal for aiming an elbow in Jason Williams’ direction.
With both Watson and Chris Williams forced to the bench, Duke dominated the glass. Twice Jones sailed in for acrobatic tip-ins, highlight-reel moves that got the crowd re-energized. Suddenly, the Devils were off on one of their patented runs.
In a game-breaking 17-4 spurt that was punctuated by Duhon’s only 3-pointer of the night, Duke scored on eight of 10 possessions and really did look like the best team in America — the NBA included.
While Duke was stacking up points, Virginia was shooting 1-for-11 to start the second half. The Cavs look to veteran guard Roger Mason for buckets and leadership, but he was silenced (4-for-14 from the field ) by the defensive efforts of Williams, Duhon and Jones.
The only anxious moments for Duke after halftime concerned its own foul follies. Midway through the second half, all the Duke starters had at least three personals in a game marred by 53 fouls and 73 free-throw attempts.
Jason Williams was assessed his fourth foul with 8:23 remaining, but by then, Duke led 77-59 and was home free.
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