WRAL Sports Fan

Duke

Feb. 11: Second half drought dooms Devils against UNC

By Jake Lloyd

Mar 8, 2009

For more than 32 minutes Wednesday night, Duke was able to keep pace with North Carolina's high-powered offense.

Then the sixth-ranked Blue Devils went cold, failing to score for a long stretch that was eerily similar to what happened in the Tar Heels win at Cameron Indoor Stadium last season.

After Gerald Henderson's two free throws cut Carolina's lead to three, the Devils (20-4 7-3) failed to scored for about 4½ minutes.

During that period, the third-ranked Tar Heels (22-2, 8-2) gained a comfortable lead en route to their 101-87 victory.

In Carolina's 76-68 win at Duke last March, the Devils lead 68-66 before failing to score in the final 5 minutes, 42 seconds. Wednesday's dry spell wasn't quite as brutal, but it had the same ultimate effect.

"I thought our guys played well," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We did not hit shots for a short period of time there and they did. They pulled away from us.

"We took two quick shots. The shot wasn't bad as much as the quickness of it. So we didn't rebound when we missed. Kyle (Singler) had a wide open 3. 'G' had a 3 in and out."

Duke also didn't take care of the ball during the game's most crucial moments. During Carolina's game-breaking run that pushed the score from 74-71 to 88-71 with less than 4 minutes remaining, the Devils turned the ball over four times while missing their lone two shot attempts.

And just like that, the game was all but over.

"We missed some shots, we had a couple turnovers and not as good of a motion (offense) as we did in the first half," Greg Paulus said.

Duke played one of its best offensive halves in the first 20 minutes, shooting 21-for-34 and making 6-of-9 3-pointers to take a 52-44 lead into the locker room.

While the Heels played better defense in the second half, the Devils had their share of open looks. At one point, they missed four consecutive wide-open 3-pointers — with one Henderson shot going in and out.

"They're good looks and we're going to take them," said Singler, who led Duke with 22 points. "You're going to make them, you're going to miss them sometimes.

"As long as they're good shots and we've got some guys rebounding, it's a good shot for us."

Duke shot 13-for-36 (36.1 percent) in the second half and knocked down two of 15 shots from beyond the arc.

But the 87 points the Devils scored marked the most they've put up in ACC play. Ultimately, Duke got into a high-scoring game with a more explosive team that didn't have any dry spells during the game's most important moments and kept on scoring.

"That's what we didn't want to do coming into the game," said Henderson, who scored 17 points. "We felt like their strength, really, in beating teams all season is scoring the basketball.

"That's how they want to win."

Carolina coach Roy Williams, however, said that his team upped their defensive intensity in the second half. And the Tar Heels did plenty enough on the other end of the court to take sole possession of first place in the ACC.

"I think we were more into it cause we were sorry in the first half and that's what I told them at halftime," Williams said. "I said we were going to come over here and guard people and show a sense of urgency, and we didn't do that on the defensive end (in the first half."

"The second half we were much better. The last 4 ½ minutes we went to switching the screens on the ball, which we did last year and it helped us."