The Chronicle

Issue date: 3/21/08 Section: News
Last update: 3/21/08 at 6:39 AM EST

Media Credit: Kevin Hwang Sophomore Gerald Henderson lays in the wining basket after driving the length of the floor following a Belmont miss.

Media Credit: Kevin Hwang Playing in his first NCAA Tournament game, freshman Kyle Singler scored 11 points in Duke's win.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski has participated in 89 NCAA Tournament games during his 33-year career, including 7 National Championship games.

But Thursday's first-round game against No. 15 Belmont was one of the highest-pressure contests he has ever been involved in.

Facing an unexpected challenge from the Bruins (25-9), the second-seeded Blue Devils (28-5) avoided being just the fifth second seed ever to lose in the first round, edging the Bruins 71-70 at the Verizon Center. Sophomore Gerald Henderson went the length of the court to score the game-winning layup with 12 seconds remaining and Duke's defense shut down the Bruins the rest of the way to hang on for the victory.

With the win, the Blue Devils move on to the Round of 32 Saturday to face No. 7 West Virginia, which topped No. 10 Arizona Thursday.

"As far as game pressure goes, this has to rank in the top three or four," said Krzyzewski, who was ill with flu-like symptoms. "The last nine minutes of the game, I thought our team had incredible game pressure on it. One, it's the NCAAs. Two, you're supposedly supposed to win. But even more importantly, they're playing really well, and you have to figure out how to win."

Belmont fully erased Duke's lead by the 10:59 mark of the second half, as Alex Renfroe completed an old-fashioned three-point play to give his team a 58-56 advantage. The Blue Devils and Bruins went back and forth for the rest of the contest, with Duke never able to pull away with a decisive run.

With each passing possession, the burden on the Blue Devils grew as the Verizon Center Jumbotron displayed television graphics listing the four previous No. 15 seeds to knock off a No. 2 in Tournament history. Meanwhile, the predominantly anti-Duke crowd booed everything from Blue Devil baskets to their cheerleaders-but Duke held strong, even after Belmont took a 70-69 lead with 2:02 remaining.

"We were very poised," freshman Kyle Singler said. "We knew we weren't out of the game. We knew we had at least three or four more possessions left in the game, so we knew we had a chance."

The Blue Devils took advantage of that opportunity, holding the Bruins scoreless for the rest of the contest. It appeared as though Duke might have been out of luck when a Henderson attempt with 53 seconds left rimmed out. But Henderson and the Blue Devils capitalized on their next possess, dribbled the length of the floor and soared over defenders for the layup that propelled Duke to the next round.

"We just had to gut it out tonight and we did that," sophomore guard Jon Scheyer said. "We're a really tough team.... They had us on the ropes tonight, and there was as much game pressure as I think any team could face in this tournament, so it was a really big win for us."

The victory was the first NCAA Tournament win of Scheyer's career, as it was for six other rotation players.

Down the stretch, it was one of those winless players, Henderson, who came through for the Blue Devils. The sophomore, who scored 21 points and notched five steals, stepped up to take control of the game, playing strong defense and grabbing several key rebounds in addition to his game-winning shot.

As well as Henderson played, however, senior DeMarcus Nelson struggled in what was nearly his last game in a Duke uniform. The captain had four turnovers and scored just two points on 1-of-6 shooting. He also missed the front end of a one-and-one as Duke held on to a 71-70 lead with 2.7 seconds remaining, giving Belmont the game's last shot.

The Blue Devils were able to survive Nelson's off night, though, in part because of lessons learned in last year's first-round loss to Virginia Commonwealth.

"At halftime we talked about [that game]," Scheyer said. "We said, all of us that were in this locker room should know better than anybody that we can lose this game. Nothing's going to be handed to us, nothing's going to be given to us."

Duke came out and took the game from Belmont down the stretch. And that, the Blue Devils said, is the bottom line-not that their captain struggled, not that they gave up several easy backdoor cuts to the Bruins and definitely not that they almost made history for all the wrong reasons.

"Even though we won by one and people will say we got whether it's lucky or we just pulled it out, it's about winning," Scheyer said. "The next game, whoever we play, we know it's going to be a tough game. We just had to gut it out tonight and we did that."



NOTES: Greg Paulus became the 56th player in Duke history to score 1,000 points. He hit the landmark after sinking a 3-pointer from the left corner with 18:25 left in the game.... The last No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed was Hampton, which beat Iowa State in Duke's 2001 National Championship season. The Pirates won that game 58-57. The other No. 2 seeds to fall were South Carolina, Arizona and Syracuse in 1997, 1993 and 1991, respectively.... Duke's last one-point win in the NCAA Tournament came in 1992, when Christian Laettner made a fadeaway turnaround as time expired to beat Kentucky.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools