Blue Devils Down Virginia, 94-81

Jan 27, 2002

By DAVID DROSCHAK
AP Sports Writer

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Top-ranked Duke would like to bottle the second half of its last three games at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Jason Williams scored 27 points, Carlos Boozer added 25 and Duke shot 68 percent over the final 20 minutes Sunday night in racing past No. 7 Virginia 94-81.

Duke outscored No. 3 Maryland 51-29 in the second half at home on Jan. 17, then beat No. 21 Wake Forest by 11 over the final 20 minutes last weekend. Virginia was added to the list of recent second-half victims as Duke scored 52 points in the second stanza Sunday night.

"For us to do that says a lot about our conditioning and our physical state and mental toughness," forward Mike Dunleavy said. "Thirty, 35 minutes through a game we can still concentrate and put teams away."

The Blue Devils were 30-for-46 from the foul line as Virginia was called for 31 fouls.

"We started attacking in the full court," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his team's 19-for-28 shooting in the final 20 minutes. "And we had flurries started from our defense."

The Blue Devils (18-1, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) won their sixth straight - all by double digits - since losing by one point to Florida State on Jan. 6.

Duke kept pace with Maryland atop the ACC standings nearing the halfway point of the league season, while the Cavaliers (14-3, 4-3) fell into a fourth-place tie with Wake Forest. North Carolina State is third at 5-2.

Williams notched his 11th 20-point game of the season, while Boozer has six in a row as the Blue Devils improved to 18-4 in their last 22 matchups with Top Ten teams and snapped Virginia's five-game winning streak.

The Cavaliers battled foul trouble all night and was led by Roger Mason Jr.'s 15 points.

"We were in tremendously deep foul trouble," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "We went zone once and they scored in about 1.2 seconds. So I said, `Well, that's it for the zone."'

The score was tied 42-42 at halftime, but Duke took control in the opening five minutes of the second half.

The Blue Devils went 7-of-9 from the field as Boozer had a fastbreak layup and a slam, while Dahntay Jones scored on two follow shots. A 3-pointer by Chris Duhon - his first points of the game - gave Duke its first double-digit lead, 59-48 with 15:13 left.

Virginia was within nine points three minutes later despite missing eight straight shots at one point. But Boozer had two dunks and a follow shot and Williams a fastbreak layup to run the score to 77-59 as the nation's top scoring team inched closer to yet another 20-win season under Krzyzewski.

"We got a little flustered and took some bad shots in the second half," Gillen said. "Our defense also broke down. Part of it was a lack of concentration, part of it was foul trouble and part of it was they executed well."

Virginia had four frontcourt players with three fouls each after 20 minutes, but the Cavaliers were able to forge the halftime tie with dominating inside play.

Duke made its first eight shots and went up 42-13 at Boston College on Thursday night, but this time it didn't come as easily against a team it blew out by 42 in Cameron a year ago.

The Blue Devils went up by seven 6:41 before the half. However, the Cavaliers went on an 8-0 run to keep it close without Travis Watson, the ACC leader in double-doubles who sat out the final 11:11 with three fouls.

Virginia got a huge lift from freshman Jason Clark, who hit all five of his first-half shots and had a season-high 11 points over the final 6:56 of the period.

"For them, the guys coming off the bench were scoring more. I didn't feel good," Krzyzewski said.

Duke did go 18-for-23 from the foul line, but shot 35.7 percent, made only four 3-pointers and turned it over nine times as Virginia had hope it would win in Cameron for the first time since 1995.

"Virginia made us look bad in the first half," Krzyzewski said. "What a spark they got from their bench. They're good."

But Watson got his fourth foul early in the second half and Clark fouled out with 16:14 left after picking up two in a span of 18 seconds.

"We drove the ball more than we shot 3s," Krzyzewski said when asked about Virginia's foul situation. "In a transition game we've got four kids who can drive."