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Monday, November 22
Charlotte, N.C.
Duke University
74
vs
61
Davidson
Ninth-Ranked Duke Survives Scare From Davidson, Pulls Out 74-61 Win
11/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2004
Box Score | Quotes | Notes | Photo Gallery
By JENNA FRYER
AP Sports Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Daniel Ewing scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half and sparked two big runs to help No. 9 Duke pull out a 74-61 victory over pesky Davidson on Monday night at the Charlotte Coliseum.
Duke (2-0) beat Davidson (1-1) for the 18th consecutive time, but nearly blew a 20-point second half lead and struggled to put the Wildcats away.
It was an ominous sign for the Blue Devils, who for the first time in five seasons were not picked to win the Atlantic Coast Conference. Picked fourth in its own league, Duke is still expected to beat the little guys with ease.
But nothing was easy against Davidson, a team Duke owns an 83-17 career mark against, including last year's 88-54 blowout at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Brimming with confidence from its season-opening 84-81 win at Missouri last week, Davidson didn't quit in a game played not far from its suburban Charlotte campus.
Led by Brendan Winters, who scored 24 points and used a trio of 3-pointers to pull the Wildcats out of a 44-24 hole, Davidson trimmed Duke's lead to four with 5:39 to play.
It was up to Ewing, who sparked the run that built Duke's big lead, to put the Blue Devils back into control. He converted a steal off of Logan Kosmalski into a fastbreak dunk, and after a free throw from Shavlik Randolph, hit a 3-pointer to push Duke's lead to 61-51 with 3:29 left.
There wasn't much Davidson could do from there, as shots fell short of the basket and rushed passes ended up in Duke's hands.
J.J. Redick added 18 points for Duke and Shelden Williams and Sean Dockery had 15 each.
Kosmalski had a game-high 25 points and 13 rebounds, but he and Winters combined for all but 12 of Davidson's points.
Ewing tried to break the game open in the second half by scoring nine consecutive points at the start, including an improbable 30-footer. Dribbling near the top of the key, he struggled to keep control of the ball and even lost it. Randolph recovered, and fired it back to Ewing as the shot clock wound down.
Ewing tossed up the leaning shot as the clock expired, then turned and smiled as the crowd celebrated the basket that gave Duke a 40-24 lead with 16:21 to play.
The Wildcats seemed stunned, immediately turning the ball over and watching in disbelief as Randolph dunked it in. Dockery added a fastbreak layup to push Duke's lead to 44-24 with 15:36 to go.
But the Blue Devils couldn't hold off a charge from Davidson, which pushed the ball inside and outside to Winters to get back into the game. He made three 3s in a 22-7 run to cut Duke's lead to 55-51 with 5:39 left.
That's when Ewing again took over.
Davidson led for most of the first half, not because of what the Wildcats were doing right, but because of what Duke was doing wrong.
The Blue Devils missed their first 11 3-point attempts as Davidson built a six point lead.
But once Duke hit its first 3 - by Dockery with 4:26 to play in the first half - the Blue Devils caught fire. Redick and Dockery each made one before halftime as Duke used an 11-0 run to take a 29-22 lead into the break.
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