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Duke blasts Army

BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

The bad news was that it came against an Army team that might spend the rest of this century and beyond looking for its first win.

The Cadets were fine young men, but this nation may be in trouble if there’s another war. Because none of coach Pat Harris’ future officers can shoot straight. Army made 7 of 39 first-half field goal attempts.

Duke prevailed 100-42 in the most one-sided basketball game anyone could remember witnessing at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Well, at least since Army surrendered to the Blue Devils by an eerily similar 100-38 in 1996.

Army played hard, but hardly played well in what may have been the worst day for the military since Custer ran into those Indians at the Little Big Horn.

Army, which is both small and slow, was greeted by chants of “Let’s go Navy,” and the Blue Devil mascot’s headband asked the burning question: “Is that all you guys can be?”

Those insults inspired Army to forge a 2-2 tie, but then things got out of hand.

By the time the future of Duke basketball — freshman point guard Jason Williams and freshman big man Carlos Boozer — hooked up for a no-look pass and layup it was 19-8.

Then Duke ran off 23 straight points and it was 42-8. And the crowd was chanting: “Nine fouls, eight points” at the beleaguered Cadets, who looked like they wanted to crawl into a foxhole. The Cameron Crazies may not have been politically correct with that jibe, but they were statistically correct.

The Crazies shouldn’t get too crazy about this one, however. Army (0-1) lost its final exhibition game to the Citizen Bank All-Stars, who probably don’t have any tellers quite as gifted as veteran Blue Devil forwards Chris Carrawell and Shane Battier.

Duke (1-2) shot 70 percent in the first half with the 6-9 Boozer scoring at will down low. Boozer started at center in place of struggling Matt Christensen and the moved looked good. Boozer, an Alaskan, scored 15 points and had eight rebounds. He’s no Elton Brand, but he should be better than Taymon Domzalski.

“We wanted to go inside tonight, because we didn’t have any inside presence at all in New York,” said Boozer, inadvertently slamming teammate Christenson.

Duke’s other freshmen starter, Williams, looked pretty good too.

He is likely better three games into his Duke career than Bobby Hurley or William Avery were, so he likely won’t last four years in Durham.

Williams scored an entertaining 14 points and posted an even more entertaining six assists. But the flashy New Jersey product also drew an occasional stare from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski when his play approached the fine line between crowd-pleasing and hot-dogging.

Krzyzewski, now in his 20th season, was silently saying, “Save that stuff for people who can defend themselves.”

Lithe freshman Casey Sanders, who is destined for the school’s shot-blocking records, had four rejections, including two on one ill-fated Army possession. The 6-11 Floridian also delighted Krzyzewski by making six straight foul shots.

Battier scored an efficient 17 to lead Duke. Nate James had 15, while Carrawell added 14 points and eight rebounds.

Duke reserves and walk-ons played so many second-half minutes that the Devils’ shooting percentage for the game eventually toppled to 54, but the only real second-half suspense concerned whether or not the Cadets could accumulate more points than fouls. Points prevailed 40-25, thanks to some late Army 3-pointers.

“Duke’s good enough to be 3-0. It was an uphill fight for our guys all night,” said Harris.

That’s putting it mildly. Duke led by 52-15 at the half and by a brutal 50 points with 16 minutes still to be played.

“I thought nerves and playing in Cameron hurt Army in the first half, and I thought our defense hurt them in the second half,” offered Krzyzewski.

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NOTES: Duke had started 0-2 for the first time in 40 years with losses to Stanford and UConn in New York City. ... Duke has won 37 straight in Cameron since losing to Tim Duncan and Wake Forest on Jan. 11, 1997. That stretch ties the school record. Duke will break the mark Tuesday when Columbia of the Ivy League comes to call.