Williams Helps Lead East Past West In McDonald's All-America Game

MILWAUKEE - Elliot Williams was one of four players who scored in double figures for the East squad and finished with 10 points in the 2008 McDonald's High School All-America game here Wednesday. The East defeated the favored West squad, 107-102.

After the West was trying to get the East to the foul line by committing four straight fouls late in the game, Williams inbounded the ball and got it right back on a behind the back pass for the slam dunk to ice the game for the East.

Williams is the 49th Duke player to participate in the game in its history with 47 of those players coming during the Coach K era. Of Coach K's 27 recruiting classes, Duke has had at least one player in 26 of them, including each of the last 24 games dating back to 1985.

Some top performances from Duke players include three players winning the game MVP honors starting with Bobby Hurley in 1989 when he shared the award with Shaquille O'Neal by dishing out 10 assists. J.J. Redick scored 26 points and hit 5 three-pointers and won the MVP award in 2002 and Josh McRoberts took home MVP honors in 2005 with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Other solid performances include DeMarcus Nelson scoring 22 points in 2004, Greg Paulus dishing out nine assists and hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the final two minutes to secure an East victory in 2005 and Carlos Boozer scoring 22 points in 1999. Danny Ferry scored 17 points in the 1985 game, Trajan Langdon was the first Alaskan in the game in 1994 and scored 13 points and Gene Banks was a headliner of the team in 1977 but the first game wasn't played until 1978.

Gerald Henderson won the dunk contest in 2006 while Nolan Smith won the team ball competition in 2007. Ricky Price also won the dunk contest in 1994. A total of six players have won the three-point shootout including Chris Collins, Trajan Langdon, Nate James, Shane Battier, Chris Duhon and J.J. Redick. Henderson was the fourth Blue Devil to win the sportsmanship award in '06, joining Duhon, Battier and James.

Cameron Indoor Stadium played host to the 2001 game.