Duke Downs Wake Forest, 101-91

Henderson scored a career-high 35 points and the ninth-ranked Blue Devils held on to beat No. 8 Wake Forest 101-91 on Sunday night.

Jon Scheyer added a career-high 30 points in his second straight start at point guard for the Blue Devils (22-5, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). They twice led by 22 points in the first half and let the Demon Deacons creep within two points before finally putting them away with a late 16-6 run keyed by Henderson.

He led Duke to a critical victory that moved it into a three-way tie for second in the league standings behind North Carolina. Now, the Blue Devils finish the season with three of its final four games away from cozy Cameron Indoor Stadium.

That's why Coach K made it a point to impress the importance of this game on his players.

"You could tell (Krzyzewski's) intensity level had risen a little bit," Henderson said. "We want to win this league, and we're still fighting for first place. His intensity and his passion is something that leads us, and we just follow his lead."

Jeff Teague scored 28 points and James Johnson added 26 for the Demon Deacons (20-5, 7-5). They shot 61 percent but allowed Duke to hit 54 percent of its attempts — the worst performance of the season by the ACC's stingiest defense.

"If somebody would have said we were going to score 91 points and we'd lose, I think I would have called him a liar," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said.

Yet his team managed to twice close within two points down the stretch, the last coming when freshman Al-Farouq Aminu's alley-oop dunk from Johnson made it 80-78 with 7½ minutes remaining.

"You lose the lead in a game like this, and you might lose the game," Krzyzewski said.

Scheyer and Henderson wouldn't let that happen.

Scheyer knocked down three free throws roughly 30 seconds later to start the decisive run in which Duke hit 6-of-7 attempts from the foul line. Henderson and Scheyer then capped the run by hitting 3-pointers about a minute apart, with Scheyer pushing it to 96-84 with 2:12 left.

Wake Forest didn't get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Duke Knocks Off St.Johns 74-69

Freshman Elliott Williams, who Krzyzewski said added some "verve" in recent practices, made just his second start of the season and he was the early spark Duke needed on the defensive end, pressuring the ball and improving the team's speed.

"I found out I was starting two days ago after a couple of good practices," said Williams, who had a career-high 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting at Madison Square Garden. "I tried to be a spark for the veteran guys. I tried to think of it as just a game but it was pretty exciting."

Gerald Henderson scored 19 points for the Blue Devils as the starters scored all but four points.

The Blue Devils (21-5) looked more like the team that has spent the entire season in the top 10, including one week at No. 1, hitting 3-pointers and converting turnovers into points.

Jon Scheyer had 18 points, Kyle Singler scored 15 and Lance Thomas added nine for Duke.

"This has been a tough time for us, the last couple of weeks but that's what the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Big East does to its members," Krzyzewski said. "We were knocked back a little bit and we have to recover. This was a big step in the right direction."

The Blue Devils finished 7-for-15 on 3s (46.7 percent), the first time since Jan. 24 they shot better than 33 percent from beyond the arc. They were 3-for-16 in the loss to Boston College on Sunday.

"We weren't in a slump, it's a game of percentages and they come around," Singler said, sounding like the shooter he is. "We got good shots tonight and we made good shots."

D.J. Kennedy had 20 points for the Red Storm (12-14), who have lost five straight overall and six in a row to Duke. The Blue Devils have won 13 of the last 15 meetings and this win improves their record at Madison Square Garden in the series to 5-1.

With Singler and Scheyer both going 2-for-3 on 3s in the first half and St. John's matching its season average for a game with 14 turnovers, Duke was able to take a lead as big as 32-18 with 4:48 left and the Blue Devils led 37-26 at halftime.

They led by as many as 16 points in the second half, the last time at 60-44 on a jumper by Thomas with 10:09 to play. St. John's closed to 74-69 on two free throws by Malik Boothe with 15.6 seconds to play, but Scheyer made two free throws to seal it.

BC Downs Duke, 80-74

Boston College shocked another one of the top Atlantic Coast Conference teams.

Reggie Jackson broke the game's final tie with a drive with 47.2 seconds left and the Eagles scored the final six points in an 80-74 victory over No. 6 Duke on Sunday, their first win over the Blue Devils in 24 years.

Tyrese Rice had 21 points, including a key 3-pointer, and Joe Trapani added 20 for the Eagles (19-8, 7-5). Jackson finished with 15 points.

"We always felt that we had the talent," Boston College coach Al Skinner said. "It's getting them to understand what it takes."

It was BC's second win over a highly ranked team this season. The Eagles handed then-No. 1 North Carolina its first loss, 85-78, in Chapel Hill on Jan. 4.

After that game they lost to Harvard.

"I would say, 'In a perfect world we're beating Duke and Carolina in my first year in the league,'" said a smiling Trapani, who sat out last season after transferring from Vermont.

With Rice seemingly handling the ball nearly every key play down the stretch, BC pulled out one of its biggest home wins in years.

"They're good and they have one of the best players in the country," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said, referring to Rice.

Rice, who became the seventh Boston College player to reach 2,000 points, grabbed a key rebound on a Duke miss before hitting two free throws that made it 78-74.

"This is a big stage," Skinner said. "He showed the type of player he is. I'm not sure I'd certainly take some of those shots, but you've just got to let him."

Kyle Singler had 25 points for the Blue Devils (20-5, 7-4), who have lost three of four, while Gerald Henderson added 20.

Duke, you have to figure out who else can score besides the same 3 guys.. Someone needs to STEP UP!!! MAN UP or you will face the same fate as last year, an early trip home from the NCAA's..

UNC tops Duke, 101-87

Ty Lawson scored 21 of his season-high 25 points in the second half while helping No. 3 North Carolina rally past No. 6 Duke 101-87 on Wednesday night.

Tyler Hansbrough scored 17 points for the Tar Heels (22-2, 8-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their eighth straight while becoming the first team in nine seasons to hit triple digits against Duke.

They came on strong down the stretch, using late runs of 25-11 and 14-0 to first take the lead for good and then stretch it to 17. In the process, they snapped the Blue Devils' 14-game home court winning streak while claiming first place in the ACC standings.

Wayne Ellington and Danny Green added 15 points apiece. Green and Hansbrough joined former Wake Forest standouts Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue as the only players to beat Mike Krzyzewski four straight times on the Cameron court that now bears his name.

"Each year it's been different," Hansbrough said. "Our freshman year, no one thought we could come in here and win. ... Tonight was one of those things where you didn't want to think about the record. We just wanted to come out and play."

Kyle Singler scored 22 points and Jon Scheyer added 20 to lead Duke (20-4, 7-3), which kept up with the uptempo Tar Heels for about 30 minutes before spiraling to its fifth loss in six meetings with the hated rival located 8 miles down Tobacco Road.

"In the second half, we kind of had the mindset that we were going to outscore them," Singler said. "But you're not going to outscore Carolina."

Gerald Henderson finished with 17 points — but was just 1-for 9 in the second half, and that's when they let this one get away.

Duke led 56-48 in the early moments of the half before North Carolina took command, with Hansbrough hitting a short jumper with just under 18 minutes remaining. That started the Lawson-led 25-11 burst in which the efficient Tar Heels took the lead for good, coming away with points on 12 of 15 trips downcourt.

"We did not hit shots for a short period of time there," Krzyzewski said. "And they did, and they got away from us."

Duke Wins Over Miami in OT

Gerald Henderson scored the go-ahead basket with 3:16 left in overtime, and #4 Duke rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to beat Miami 78-75.

Henderson had 18 of his 19 pts after halftime for the Blue Devils (20-3, 7-2 ACC), who struggled in the first half to bounce back from a blowout loss at Clemson.

Jon Scheyer led Duke with 22 pts, while Kyle Singler shook off a terrible shooting day to come up with a key overtime basket that helped the Blue Devils stay in front late.

Duke trailed by 13 at halftime and 38-22 early in the second half before rallying.

Jack McClinton scored 34 to lead Miami (15-8, 4-6), including a 3 to force overtime with 14.8 seconds left. Duke had a chance for the win in regulation, but Scheyer missed a 3 in the final seconds.

Once in overtime, Henderson scored over Dwayne Collins inside for a 70-68 lead, then Singler — who finished 5-for-23 from the field — drove in for a score two possessions later to push the margin to four. Then, Henderson added a tough stepback jumper over Collins to make it 74-68 with 51.9 seconds to play.

The Hurricanes, meanwhile, missed their first five shots before McClinton buried a 3 with 31.1 seconds left that cut the lead to three. Miami got no closer, with Greg Paulus burying two free throws with 10.2 seconds left to seal the win.

Paulus, making his first start at the point in nearly two months, finished with 18, while Singler had 17. Duke also got a boost from reserve David McClure, who had 13 rebounds — including six on the offensive glass after halftime.

Duke won despite shooting 33% from the floor — 19% in the first half — and going 12-for-39 from 3 range against the Hurricanes' determined zone defense.

The Hurricanes were coming off a notable performance of their own. Miami turned a three-point halftime lead against seventh-ranked Wake Forest into a 79-52 win to end a three-game losing streak.

Clemson Embarrasses Duke, Wins by 27

Duke Coach K called a timeout in the final minute, gathered his beaten Blue Devils around him and let them listen as the Littlejohn Coliseum crowd celebrated a Clemson win like few others.

"They shouldn't forget this loss," Krzyzewski said. "This is as bad as you can play."

Trevor Booker scored 21 and Terrence Oglesby had five 3's in the 10th-ranked Tigers' 74-47 victory over #4 Duke.

Krzyzewski, typically a bright-side coach, found nothing satisfying about this defeat. The Blue Devils (19-3, 6-2 ACC) hadn't had a loss like this since the 1990 NCAA title game when UNLV beat the Blue Devils 103-73.

Kryzyzewski and his team stored that away and responded by winning the next two NCAA championships.

"What you take from anything," he said, "is the responsibility of what you've done."

"There are no excuses," he said.

For Clemson (19-2, 5-2), it was further proof this is a far different club.

It's different from the one two years ago that opened 17-0 yet failed to make the NCAAs tournament. It's different from the one three weeks ago that fell apart in an earlier top 10 showdown, falling 78-68 to Wake Forest.

"I've said all along you get better as a team by taking lessons from seasons before, from games before," Clemson coach Oliver Purnell said. "You'd like for all those lessons to be positive, but sometimes you've got to learn from losses.

"I thought that really applied tonight," he continued. "I thought we were ready for this atmosphere, we embraced it. Yet we narrowed our focus to what we needed to do to beat Duke."

And that was an end-to-end defense that disrupted the Blue Devils.

Gerald Henderson was the only one of Duke's four double-digit average scorers to hit that mark with 16, the rest, either sucked or stayed on the bus..

"It was 40 minutes of them dominating," Krzyzewski said. "They just kicked our butts."

Clemson used a 20-8 run over the last 8 minutes of the first half to take a 33-21 lead. The Tigers kept extending the lead until the final buzzer.

"It's going to be tough to top that," Booker said. "We just played great. ... They quit at the end. We just got the job done."

Duke had won 22 straight over Clemson — most in blowout fashion — since the Tigers won three straight in the series in the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons.

Duke Rolls Over Virginia by 25.

Duke's brief run at #1 is nearly over. But if the Blue Devils keep playing like this, they'll probably be back on top soon enough.

Gerald Henderson scored 16 of his 18 pts in the first half to lead #1 ranked Duke past Virginia 79-54.

Nolan Smith added 15 on 7-of-10 shooting for the ACC-leading Blue Devils (19-2, 6-1). They wrapped up what surely will be a one-week run as the nation's top-ranked team with a dominating effort that helped them bounce back from a final-seconds loss to Wake Forest.

"There's got to be some kind of fire in you after a loss, and it's nothing like you just try to show," Henderson said. "It's just something that's there. Because the last time you played, the last time people saw you play, you were a loser. We don't want to be seen as that."

Jon Scheyer finished with 11 points for Duke, which never trailed, shot 46% and forced 23 turnovers -- 17 in the first half. And for a while, at least, its tough defense frustrated star freshman Sylven Landesberg in his first visit to Cameron.

Landesberg recovered from a rocky start and scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half. After turning it over three times on his first six trips downcourt and picking up two early fouls, he wound up leading the Cavaliers in scoring for the 11th time in 20 games while hitting the 20-point mark for the 10th time -- the most by a freshman in school history.

"I sat a lot on the bench in the first half and had to try to find a way to get back in my rhythm," Landesberg said.