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Duke

Duke beats Binghamton 86-62, will face Texas in second round of NCAA Tournament

By Jake Lloyd

Mar 20, 2009

David McClure wouldn’t say whom he was rooting for, but a smile on his face gave a hint.

McClure, along with several other Duke players, was intently watching the flat screen TV in the Blue Devils locker room which was showing the end of the Virginia Commonwealth-UCLA game late Thursday night.

It was strangely appropriate, considering that two years ago VCU started a difficult couple years of postseason play for the Blue Devils by upsetting them in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Then, last season, Duke had to survive No. 15-seeded Belmont, beating the Bruins by a point in the opening round and losing to West Virginia two days later.

But this time around, these second-seeded Blue Devils weren’t in the mood to let the little guy stick around — routing No. 15-seeded Binghamton 86-62 in Greensboro Coliseum.

Duke (29-6) led 45-34 at halftime, but it wasn’t a sturdy advantage. The Bearcats (23-9) had shown a great ability to make 3-pointers in the first half, going 6-of-11, and used a pressure defense that caused eight Duke turnovers in the half.

The margin was similar to Duke’s previous two first-round games: The Blue Devils blew an 11-point, second-half margin in the loss to VCU and almost gave up a seven-point halftime lead against Belmont.

But according to Jon Scheyer, who led six Blue Devils in double figures with 15 points, Thursday’s situation was entirely different.

“I thought we played a better half and we were in (good) position,” Scheyer said. “I still think we were playing well and they hit a lot of their shots.

“But we still didn’t play as well as wanted to, so (in) the second half we wanted to come out, play defense and get stops.”

That’s exactly what the Blue Devils did. They scored 14 consecutive points — holding Binghamton scoreless on six straight possessions — to grab a commanding 62-36 advantage and take the green-clad Bearcats fans out of the game.

The margin didn’t dip below 20 points the rest of a stress-free second half for Duke and coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was able to insert his bench players at the end.

Team energizer Lance Thomas was especially important during Duke’s game-clinching spurt, scoring a putback layup and a dunk and adding a free throw. During the first half, Krzyzewski yelled to his forward, “Hey, Lance, now’s the time!”

Thomas responded with 14 points on 5-of-5 shooting and five rebounds.

“We just wanted to play harder than them,” Thomas said. “We didn’t want to go out of this game thinking we got outplayed by effort.”

In the first half, the Blue Devils faced what they’ve struggled to contain the past two seasons — a hungry, energetic low seed with nothing to lose playing with an intensity and desperation that simply isn’t seen until the NCAA Tournament.

The Bearcats pressured Duke all over the court — something Scheyer said he hadn’t seen since the Blue Devils’ embarrassing 74-47 loss at Clemson in early February — and responded with zest to every little run Duke made.

But an experienced Duke team knew what was coming, and it was able to weather the storm and take the 11-point halftime lead.

“Every team has that sense of urgency when it comes to this tournament,” Thomas said. “Teams don’t automatically get here. You work to get here. That’s a team that’s accustomed to winning, so they didn’t come out thinking that they were going to go down.

“They were swinging in that game, and we just made the effort at halftime to make sure we’d play harder than them. The first 4 minutes of the second half were really big for us.”

First there was a high-flying layup by Gerald Henderson (13 points), who was also fouled and converted the free throw. Then Henderson made a crisp pass to Elliot Williams (11 points, four rebounds, four assists) for a 3-pointer from the right wing.

When Williams missed a jumper two possessions later, Thomas swooped in to tip the ball in right after it came off the cylinder.

Then Scheyer knocked down a straightaway 3-pointer and tip-passed a loose ball to Thomas for an emphatic slam, and the Blue Devils were well on their way.

“I thought we played well in the first half, but in the second half I thought we played extremely well,” Krzyzewski said. “Especially those first 5 or 6 minutes.”

About midway through the first half, the usually calm Scheyer was extremely upset when he reached the bench after picking up his second foul. His disappointment in himself was evident for a good one or two minutes.

But he was at the center of Duke’s key spurt, illustrating that these older, wiser Blue Devils have done a lot of growing since that night when VCU burned them — and even since surviving the Belmont scare a year ago.

“It’s not (a) killer instinct,” said Kyle Singler (10 points, nine rebounds). “It’s just, we know that we have to put together 40 minutes of basketball to win games in the NCAA Tournament.”