Nelson Ignites Duke Past Maryland, 93-84

Facing its biggest deficit of the season in a hostile environment, #3 Duke showed its resilience in denying Maryland another upset.

DeMarcus Nelson scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half, Gerald Henderson added 23, and the Blue Devils rallied to beat the Terrapins 93-84.

Duke (17-1, 5-0 ACC) had not trailed by more than six points in any game prior to falling behind 51-42 at halftime. But the Blue Devils fought back in front of a boisterous sellout crowd hopeful of seeing Maryland earn its sixth win in eight games against its hated rival.

James Gist scored 26 and Bambale Osby had 20 points and 15 rebounds, both career highs, for the Terrapins (12-8, 2-3).

Duke led by 2 before baskets by Henderson and Nelson sparked an 8-2 spurt that made it 83-75. A 3-pointer by Gist got Maryland to 84-81, but Nelson made a driving layup for a 5-point cushion with 61 seconds to go.

The Terrapins would get no closer than 4 points.

Duke launched its comeback at the outset of the second half by making three straight baskets, two by Nelson. A 3-pt play by Nelson got the Blue Devils to 57-55, and minutes later a 3 by Kyle Singler put Duke up 64-63.

Greivis Vasquez answered with a layup and an off-balance baseline jumper, but Terps reserve David Neal missed a layup and the Blue Devils used a 3-pointer by Greg Paulus and two foul shots by Nelson to move back in front.

The Terrapins would not lead again.

Duke Crushes Virginia Tech, 81-64

Kyle Singler scored 10 of his 16 points during an 18-9 run that allowed the #3 Blue Devils to build on a one-point lead early in the second half and they stayed comfortably ahead the rest of the way in an 81-64 victory Thursday night.

"It was important to keep the crowd out of it," Singler said. "Whenever you're playing away from home, it's definitely hostile and a difficult environment."

Singler made sure he didn't have to see that side of Blacksburg, even after A.D. Vassallo's 3-pointer 20 seconds into the second half pulled the Hokies close at 42-41.

"We should have carried our momentum," Hokies freshman guard Hank Thorns said, "but we allowed them to hit us back, and when they hit us, they didn't stop."

The Blue Devils (16-1, 4-0 ACC) won their sixth straight game and for the third time in the past five drama-filled meetings with the Hokies.

Singler answered Vassallo's 3-pointer with one of his own, then had three of the Blue Devils' next four baskets as they built a 53-45 lead.

When a dunk by J.T. Thompson pulled the Hokies to 53-47, the Blue Devils answered by scoring the next seven points, one on a free throw by Singler after Deron Washington was called for an intentional foul for pushing Singler after a defensive rebound by Duke.

The Hokies never challenged again.

Nelson and Company Drive Over Clemson, 93-80

The #5 Blue Devils overcame their decided size disadvantage with quickness, using 24 points from DeMarcus Nelson to beat Clemson 93-80 Saturday night for their 22nd straight win in the series.

"They just owned the boards," Krzyzewski said. "We were dominating the other part of the court, and they were dominating [the low post], ... Our defense saved us."

Kyle Singler added 17 points and helped key the game-breaking run for the Blue Devils (15-1, 3-0 ACC). They blew a 12-point first-half lead, regrouped and eventually ran away from the #23 Tigers.

"It took us the whole game to really wear them down," Nelson said.

Gerald Henderson had 16 points, Nolan Smith scored 13 and Jon Scheyer finished with 12 for Duke, which turned up the defensive pressure and rode some hot shooting to its fifth straight win.

"Our game plan was to try to force them into a lot of turnovers, try to press them and trap them in different areas and try to trap them in the post a little bit," Nelson said. "They never went away."

Clemson held a 42-26 rebounding advantage, but the Tigers turned it over 21 times -- 5.5 more than their average. Duke turned those miscues into 37 points and shot 53.4 percent, knocking down 10 of 11 shots in one early stretch.

The third conference win puts Duke solidly in first place in the ACC as the only remaining undefeated team in the conference.

Maryland Pounds UNC on Their Home Turf, 82-80

DING DOME, Chapel Hill-- UNC proved their weak defense and shoddy offense couldn't hold a candle to Maryland, and deservedly lost the first game of their cupcake season to the Terps, 82-80, at home in front of their crying fans.

Gist and Vasquez dominated roy'z boy'z in assists and points and the Strong D of Maryland held the weak UNC team to 38% shooting. The officials finally called a good game keeping the tarholes off the freebie line, where they only mustered 13 pts.

The loss proves the over-rated and over-inflated egos of the tarheel squad need more work on orange ball skills instead of showboating against high-school and D2 teams that they have faced all year, having only played one ranked team all season.

The beating moves the tarhole record to 2-1 on the year, and 16-0 in exhibition play. Earlier this month, North Carolina barely survived by beating Clemson in OT on a buzzer 3 by Ellington (36 pts, great game), and again barely surviving a flurry of shots by Georgia Tech in the waning seconds to pull off a win in Atlanta on Wednesday.

Coach roy was asked what he thought happened tonite, between tears he glanced again at the scoreboard and choked out that 'someone blew out the candle on our cupcake' turned and walked away dejected, sobbing as if someone had stolen his scooter..

A great victory on a not so great season for Maryland, surely this wont be the only highlight of the year for Gary Williams' determined and talented group of athletes.

Duke Rises Up Over Fla State 70-57

The many faces of Jon Scheyer, as he scored 21 points and four teammates combined to make eight straight free throws in the final 1:34 to beat Florida State 70-57 and snap the unlikely two-game losing streak to the Seminoles.

"For awhile there it looked like there's no way we're going to win it and [then] our kids got tough," Krzyzewski said. "After they had been the weakest they got to be the toughest. I don't know how that works, but it worked tonight."

Duke (14-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) nearly blew a 17-point lead it built in the first half on a 16-0 run led by Scheyer, who had 10 points on a variety of shots in a span of just 1:35.

"We've struggled here in the past, but this is a new team," Scheyer said. "Last year they beat us at home so we had something to prove."

"We got beat by a team that executed and maintained their poise for longer periods than we did," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. "They have so many weapons."

Gerald Henderson added 11 points and Singler had 10 for Duke. Henderson's eight rebounds helped the Blue Devils to a 44-32 advantage on the boards.

Duke managed to get the road win despite shooting 43.9 percent and committing 20 turnovers. Florida State shot 35.5 percent.

Interesting side note:

Fla State's Ryan Reid lost his cool with 30 ticks to go and throws a right cross at Paulus who is on the floor hugging the ball and receives a Technical foul, no ejection, no reprimands.. Great officiating! What happens at FSU, stays at FSU..

Duke Shuts Down Virginia 87-65 in ACC Opener

This is how Coach K's team is supposed to begin its brutal conference schedule.

Behind 20 points from DeMarcus Nelson, # 9 Duke cruised to an 87-65 victory against Virginia, perhaps the Blue Devils' most complete victory of the season.

Henderson added 18 points and Kyle Singler scored 13 for the Blue Devils (13-1, 1-0 ACC). They shot better than 50%, never trailed, led by double figures for the entire second half, hit 11 3-pointers and shut down Virginia's perimeter game.

"We knew that they were a 3-point shooting team, especially in transition," Nelson said. "We felt they were going to take a lot of 3s, so our job was just to rebound those long misses when they did occur, and then push it, because we knew that their defensive balance was going to be bad (by) taking perimeter shots."

Duke limited the Cavs, a 40% shooting team from long range, to just 4-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc and held a 35-34 advantage on the glass against a Virginia team that entered out-rebounding its opponents by 12.4 per game.

Sean Singletary scored 18 points and Calvin Baker added 13 for Virginia (10-4, 0-1), its four-game winning streak against ranked teams also was snapped.

"They came out and imposed their will on us, and we didn't have enough to play at a consistently high level throughout the game," Singletary said. "They just kept giving us punches and punches, and sometimes we responded, and sometimes we didn't."

The Blue Devils turned to their strong perimeter game to build an early lead; the ACC's second-best 3-point-shooting team hit 8-of-18 from long range in the first half. Then, when the Cavaliers clamped down on the outside game, Duke simply broke down Virginia's defense off the dribble, repeatedly slicing its way to second-half layups and dunks.

"We really wanted to drive the ball hard like we were going to score," said guard Jon Scheyer, who added 12 points. "If it wasn't there, our kicks (to the guards) were always there. ... Some guys hit them, and in the second half, they took them away (and) we were able to get some drives to the basket."

Nelson was 3-of-4 from 3-point range and scored at least 20 points for the third time in five games for Duke, which has won 10 of 11 in the series.

Duke Plucks Temple, 74-64

Taylor King scored 15 to lead #9 Duke past Temple 74-64 on Wednesday night and help Blue Devils Coach K earn his 787th victory and move into 6th place on the career wins list.

Krzyzewski, the third winningest active coach, improved his career record to 787-262 and broke a tie with Lefty Driesell. Next is San Francisco's Eddie Sutton with 798 career wins.

DeMarcus Nelson and Greg Paulus each scored 13 points and helped the Blue Devils (12-1) beat Temple for the eighth straight time.

The Blue Devils appeared on their way to another easy non-conference victory until a surprising 8-minute scoreless drought in the second half that sliced a 19-point lead down to eight.

Kyle Singler snapped the skid with two free throws and Gerald Henderson, a Philly high school standout, followed with a dunk to break Duke out of its funk and it cruised from there.

Dionte Christmas sparked Temple's rally with three 3's and led the Owls (6-7) with 23. Mark Tyndale scored 20 for the Owls, denied their first win against a non-conf top 10 team in more than five years.

Nelson hit a 3 and King added two more early in the second half to give Duke some breathing room. The Blue Devils needed it, too, because Christmas started his hot streak with two 3s sandwiched between Duke's long-range shots to make it 53-34.

Then the Blue Devils simply went cold. King's 3 were the last points for Duke for exactly 8 minutes and that was the window Christmas needed to take over and give the Owls some hope in front of 18,030 fans at the Wachovia Center, home of the NBA's 76ers.

Christmas, who leads the Owls at 20.9 points, hit another 3 and went 8-for-9 from the free-throw line. He scored all the points in an 11-0 run that cut the gap to 53-44.

Once the Blue Devils broke the scoreless streak, they did just enough to slowly build on their lead. Jon Scheyer hit a 3 for a 64-59 lead and the Owls could never get any serious offensive production from anyone other than Christmas and Tyndale.

Nelson Leads Duke Past Cornell, 81-67

DeMarcus Nelson matched a season high with 23 points and No. 9 Duke shook off a slow start to beat Cornell 81-67 on Sunday night.

Kyle Singler added 14 points for the Blue Devils (11-1), who were coming off a 16-day layoff and eventually pulled away for their NCAA-best 58th straight nonconference victory at home.

Gerald Henderson scored 12 points and Greg Paulus added 11 for Duke, which only briefly trailed late in the first half and took command early in the second with a 13-3 run. The victory gave Coach K his 786th career victory, tying Lefty Driesell for sixth on the all-time wins list.

Ryan Wittman had 13 points and 7-foot center Jeff Foote added 10 for Cornell (6-5), which was denied its first victory against an Atlantic Coast Conference team in 56 seasons.

Nelson matched the 23 points he scored in Duke's most recent home game, a 111-70 rout of Albany, and was one point shy of his career high set last season against George Mason.

Duke took its first double-figure lead just before halftime, using an 11-2 burst keyed by Henderson to make it 41-31 with 50 seconds left.

The Blue Devils then gave themselves some breathing room with their big second-half run, which started with freshman Nolan Smith's layup at the 18:30 mark making it 43-37. The run ended 4 minutes later on Paulus's jumper from just inside the arc, making it 54-40.

Paulus then gave Duke its largest lead of the game when he took a flip from Lance Thomas and knocked down a 3 from the key to make it 59-44.

Cornell kept things close early and took a brief lead when Jason Hartford's layup with 7:28 before halftime made it 24-22. Duke regained the lead for good 2 minutes later when Jon Scheyer's 3-pointer from the right wing made it 28-27.

Duke's lineup at tipoff had a different look — Paulus and Thomas started on the bench, Smith made his first career start and 7-foot-1 center Brian Zoubek started for the second time this season.

**In Ranking News-->> The top 5 are unchanged as UNC comes from behind to eek out a win in OT against Clemson in their first game of the season, ending their 14 game exhibition schedule. Of course the favoritism continues and they keep the top spot in the polls, regardless of how many ranked teams the Memphis Tigers have beaten, they remain #2.

Looking forward to some great conference games from here out to the end of the season! Blowout the cupcake candles ladies, its time to dance!

Clemson Washes out Alabama Tide, 87-61

Trevor Booker and James Mays scored 18 points each inside and Terrence Oglesby added 17 for the Tigers (12-1), who resumed their domination of the Southeastern Conference.

The result was the worst loss at Coleman Coliseum for the Crimson Tide (10-4) since a 93-60 defeat to LSU in 2000 and the most lopsided home nonconference defeat since losing by 28 to Ohio State in 1970.

Booker was more surprised by the manner of the easy win than the final margin.

"I didn't think they were going to quit toward the end," he said. "I think they gave up toward the seven-minute mark."

Tide coach Mark Gottfried hardly disagreed with that assessment, thanks to what he referred to as a "second-half disaster."

"I'm completely, 100 percent embarrassed at how my team competed in the second half," said Gottfried, whose team entered on a six-game winning streak. "That hasn't been the case for one minute of one game this year. I think we got frustrated. Their pressure hurt us. They made a nice run, they made some tough shots, we started getting hurried on offense. We took some bad shots."

The Tigers have won seven of their past eight games against SEC teams, the only loss coming to Mississippi on Dec. 22.

They took control of this one midway through the second half, setting up uncontested shots and denying any such chances for the Tide.

**In ranking news, much of the same old story.. #2 Memphis beats #19 'Zona after beating #4 GTown, and remain in 2nd place behind the tarholez which played yet another cupcake team on their cowardice schedule. The selection committee and the coaches involved in these ranking polls should apologize to the fans and should be replaced on future polls.

Happy New Year peeps! We made it to another YEAR!!