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Singler's Double-Double Leads Duke Past Boston College

By Jake Lloyd

Feb 9, 2008

Any college basketball fan knows that the country is full of superstar freshmen.

Kansas State's Michael Beasley is considered a possible No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. Many pundits think Indiana's Eric Gordon is the premier shooting guard in the nation. The list goes on and on.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski thinks he might have the best plebe in forward Kyle Singler.

"Well, Singler's had a great year," Krzyzewski said. "I don't know if there's a freshman in the country who's played better than Singler.

"He's there every night. I mean, defense, offense, tough plays, the kid's had a phenomenal year."

Singler played one of his best games to lead Duke (21-1, 9-0 ACC) to a come-from-behind 90-80 win over Boston College Saturday afternoon.

Singler scored 24 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had three steals and a block. In a game where most of the Blue Devils had trouble scoring around the rim against the best shot-blocking team in the ACC, Singler muscled his way to a number of tough baskets.

"Kyle's a beast," teammate Lance Thomas said. "That was good basketball. Defensively, he leads our team in charges. Obviously, he can shoot the ball. Kyle's just a complete player."

And the freshman made all the key plays to give Duke the lead and then increase it to a comfortable margin.

After the feisty Eagles (12-10, 3-6) fought back from a seven-point deficit to take a 65-63 lead with under 10 minutes to play, Singler hit a 3 from his favorite spot — right in front of the Duke bench — to give the Devils the lead for good.

Singler says "it's luck," but he has shot about 80 percent from that area of the floor this season.

"I don't think he has (missed from there), either," Thomas said. "He just knocks it down. That's his sweet spot. He knocks it down in practice consistently, so it translates to the game."

From that point on, it was the Kyle Singler Show. First, he made a steal and fed Jon Scheyer — while falling to the floor — as Scheyer raced down the court. Scheyer (11 points) was fouled and made both free throws for a 74-67 advantage.

After DeMarcus Nelson — the only other Devil who shot really well, making eight of 10 field goals for 23 points — made a 3 for a 77-67 advantage, Singler nailed one from his favorite spot for Duke's biggest lead of the game 80-67.

In the final 5 minutes, Singler showed off his all-around game, drawing a charge on B.C.'s top scorer Tyrese Rice (game-high 28 points), blocking a layup attempt by Biko Paris and grabbing a key rebound.

The performance was Singler's fourth double-double of the season. And the Devils needed it, especially in the first half when they made just four of 13 free throws and allowed the Eagles to shoot 60.7 percent en route to a 42-41 lead.

Duke recovered to make 16 of 20 second-half free throws and finish 20-of-33 (60.6 percent) from the line.

High-flying Gerald Henderson usually finishes around the rim, but he and other Devils — minus Singler — had a hard time finding the basket.

"We knew that they had some shot-blockers," Henderson said. "(They have) three guys that are going to go up there every time and get the ball.

"I think we just had to be smarter and shot-fake and know that they're coming — maybe pitch it off or something like that. We should have been smarter with that."

But Singler neither struggled getting his shot off or hitting free throws when fouled. If he missed a shot, he got his own rebound and scored, and he made five of seven free throws to come within a point of his career-high 25 set against Marquette in December.

The 6-8 Singler was even given the ball near the midcourt line in Duke's spread offense in the final 2 minutes. Krzyzewski knew Singler, with his ball-handling skills, could take 6-10 John Oates off the dribble, and, sure enough, Singler got to the basket and drew a foul.

"I don't really consider myself a go-to guy, because we have seven, eight go-to guys on our team," Singler said. "And that's one of the special things about our team — on any given night, in any given moment each player can make a great play."

Singler showed off his versatility about four times in the second half when, after a defensive switch, he'd find himself guarding the super-quick Rice. The 6-1 guard failed to score on any of the occasions, as Singler did a good job of keeping Rice in front of him. Singler is often matched up against bigger players, but he was able to adjust to the situation.

The left-handed Rice scored 18 points in the first half on 6-of-7 shooting, but things changed after his runner one minute in the second period gave the Eagles a 46-42 lead. Rice rolled his ankle on the play and briefly left the game. He quickly returned unscathed, but scored only eight points the rest of the way on 3-of-8 shooting.

"Through our scouting report, we knew we were going to be guarding pretty much everyone on B.C.'s team — just a matter of what we were doing defensively, switching on ball screens," Singler said. "So we knew we would be guarding some point guards.

"Basically, coach said, 'Just keep him in front, force him right, and just make him shoot jumpers over our contested hands.'"

About the only negative of Singler's afternoon was a technical foul he picked up with 1:59 remaining and Duke ahead 84-73. After a hard foul on Henderson, Singler approached the fouler, Shamari Spears, and said something. Within a second, he was laced with the technical.

"To be honest, I don't know what I said," Singler said. "But I went over just to see if 'G' was all right."

Henderson was fine, and Krzyzewski's superb freshman was more than fine against the Eagles.

The evidence was in a standing ovation Singler received when he was pulled from the game with 29 seconds remaining.