WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

Duke drops Miami in OT, 78-75

By Jake Lloyd

Feb 7, 2009

For about 23 minutes of Duke's 78-75 overtime win over Miami Saturday, it was as if every Duke player was trying to make up for the Blue Devils' worst loss in nearly 19 years by himself.

Playing against Miami's 2-3 zone defense, the Devils' ball movement created nothing and players were often left trying to create their own offensive opportunities with the shot clock running down.

The result was not pretty. As bad as the fourth-ranked Devils (20-3, 7-2 ACC) looked offensively when Clemson clobbered them 74-47 on Wednesday night — Duke's worst loss since dropping the 1990 national-title game 103-73 to UNLV — they looked even worse inside the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Duke shot 6-of-31 in a first half that ended with Miami (15-8, 4-6) leading 32-19, and the Devils quickly fell behind 38-22 early in the second half. Their first home loss of the season seemed inevitable.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said that counting the loss at Clemson, the Devils played "the worst you can play for 63 minutes."

But then Duke's offense came to life. The ball movement became crisp, players got into the paint and the ultimate result was that shots started falling — not every shot, but a much better percentage of Duke's shots than was the case in the first half.

Jon Scheyer led the Devils with 22 points. Gerald Henderson scored 19 points, Greg Paulus — who started just his second game of the season — had a season-high 18 and Kyle Singler added 17 (although he shot just 5-for-23).

Jack McClinton led Miami with 34 points, including five 3-pointers.

"Gerald's penetration of the zone (was important)," Krzyzewski said. "There was so much more movement in the last 17 minutes that we didn't have before."

Even with Henderson using screens to get in the middle of the zone, however, Duke didn't catch fire offensively. At one point in the second half, the Devils missed six consecutive field-goal attempts.

What the Devils did was give themselves plenty of opportunities to score.

After being outrebounded 25-14 in the first half, the Devils held a 27-16 advantage in the second half of regulation and overtime. Even more important, Duke grabbed 14 offensive rebounds during those 25 minutes that led to 14 second-chance points.

Some of the baskets were right at the rim. Others were perimeter jumpers created by quick kick-out passes.

David McClure was Duke's main catalyst. Seven of his career-high 13 rebounds were on the offensive end, and he was quick to find the open man upon corralling the ball.

"I think that's something that we all as a team try and emphasize," McClure said, "because we know that a lot of teams do fall asleep when the ball does go up and that's when Jon, Greg — those guys really try and stay as alert as possible so we can get those second shots or a whole second shot clock."

Trailing 42-32, Singler hit a pair of free throws before Henderson skied over the defense — and seemed to hang in the air for a full second — before throwing in a putback layup to get Duke within 42-36.

A minute later — with the crowd roaring and Miami clearly flustered — Paulus made a steal under Miami's basket and converted an uncontested layup to tie the game at 42. A flagrant foul was called on DeQuan Jones for elbowing Paulus, and the Miami freshman was ejected.

A Scheyer free throw and 3-pointer following the ejection gave Duke a six-point possession, a 14-0 spurt and a 46-42 advantage.

"Just second shots," Miami coach Frank Haith said of what allowed Duke to come back. "If you go back and look at it, they out-scrapped us on some loose balls.

"If you're able to rebound the ball, which we did in the first half, they don't get those second shots. There were some long rebounds and our guards needed to help us rebound the ball during that time."

When McClure grabbed an offensive rebound in traffic and fed a wide-open Singler for a 3-pointer, Duke led 49-44 with 10:49 remaining and seemed in control.

But with the sharp-shooting McClinton leading the way, the Hurricanes fought back and created a suspense-filled final few minutes of regulation that featured four lead changes.

Unlike in the first half, Duke didn't become stagnant against the zone or go one-on-one. Trailing 65-63 with less than 2 minutes remaining, Paulus hit his biggest shot. Taking a play from last season's playbook — but something that hasn't been seen often with Paulus' minutes slashed this year — the senior guard used a Singler screen at the top of the key to drain an open 3 and give Duke a 66-65 advantage.

"Our leadership has been just OK throughout the whole season," Krzyzewski said. "And when you're winning sometimes you don't even know who's leading and maybe nobody was.

"Then all of a sudden there's a moment, and we need it. And it's at that moment that you hope somebody steps up and becomes it. And that's the best way to become the leader of the group — under fire.

"You have to earn being a leader. Greg Paulus did that today."

There was no question throughout the game who Miami's leader was. That was most evident in the closing seconds, when McClinton used his quick release to make about a 28-foot 3-pointer with 14.8 seconds remaining over the 6-foot-8 Singler and 6-6 McClure. The shot tied the game at 68.

Scheyer rimmed out a 3-pointer and Singler missed a putback right before the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.

"McClinton was spectacular," Krzyzewski said. "The shot he hit with two guys on him was just a big-time shot. … The kid is just a great player, a great shooter."

But McClinton was the only Hurricane who scored in the final 9½ minutes, including overtime. He had Miami's final 18 points.

The Devils knew they needed a team effort to overcome the second-half deficit, pull out the game in overtime and not have to stare a two-game losing streak in the face with North Carolina coming to Durham on Wednesday.

"We wanted to come in and make a statement," McClure said. "And when our shots weren't falling in the beginning, I think it kind of knocked us back a little bit.

"At halftime we really just sat down — no one was really yelling and screaming — and we said to ourselves that we really were going to band together and do it one play at a time as a team.

"When we looked to our right and to our left and knew that we were going to be there for each other in the second half, it propelled us to make plays and go on that run."

And that's what lifted the Devils during a poor-shooting overtime. Leading 72-68 with under 2 minutes remaining, Paulus scrambled to the corner to rebound a missed 3-pointer by Henderson.

The Devils then wound the shot clock down, and Henderson converted a fade-away jumper for a commanding six-point lead in the final minute.

"In the second half there was more flow, there were more connecting plays," Henderson said. "And that's how we need to play."