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Clemson rolls to 74-47 win, Duke's worst loss since 1990
AP Photo
Clemson's Trevor Booker (35) dunks on Brian Zoubek (55) and Kyle Singler (12) of Duke.
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Published: February 5, 2009
CLEMSON, S.C.
It's a rare night when Duke gets punched in the mouth and doesn't fight back.
That's what happened last night, though.
Clemson routed the Blue Devils 74-47 at Littlejohn Coliseum in a blowout that prompted a quick search of the record books.
It was Duke's worst loss since its 103-73 loss to UNLV in the 1990 national-championship game, and Duke's worst loss to Clemson since a 100-66 loss here in 1975.
Duke's 47 points were the fewest in 14 years, since a 51-44 loss to Clemson in 1995.
There were no excuses afterward, just bewilderment and disgust.
"I've never experienced anything like this before," senior David McClure said. "I mean, it's really disgraceful and embarrassing. We didn't come to play Duke basketball today. We didn't come to fight. We didn't come ready to fight. That's really all you can say."
Coach Mike Krzyzewski put it bluntly.
"They kicked our butt," he said. "Their crowd was great. Their team was great. Their coaching was great, and we were the opposite in every way. We didn't compete tonight, and that's not a good thing."
The loss dropped Duke to 19-3 overall and 6-2 in the ACC, back into a tie for first place with North Carolina. Clemson raised its record to 19-2 overall and 5-2 in the ACC.
"We need to put this loss behind us," guard Gerald Henderson said, "but you never forget a loss like this."
The Tigers got 21 points and eight rebounds from Trevor Booker, and 17 points from Terrence Oglesby, who hit five 3-pointers.
They rattled Duke from the opening tap with full-court pressure and intense defense that forced 16 Duke turnovers. Duke had 11 turnovers at halftime -- including four against the press and several others from rushing after breaking the press -- in pulling out to a 33-21 halftime lead.
Clemson was credited with 12 steals, and scored 23 points off turnovers.
"They're a team that has a lot of different pressing defenses and we didn't handle them well," McClure said. "They really wanted to say ‘Boo' and have up spit the ball up, and that's what we did. We didn't have any poise with the ball. We didn't have any leadership out there. That basically runs us into what they like to do against any team. When you play into their hands, you've got to expect something like this."
In addition to turning the ball over 16 times, Duke shot a season-low 30.8 percent from the field.
Henderson scored 16 and Lance Thomas 10, but leading scorer Kyle Singler struggled through 2-of-8 shooting and finished with six points and five turnovers. Jon Scheyer was scoreless in the first half and finished with three, on 1-of-8 shooting. And Nolan Smith was 1 for 7 from the field for three points, and had four turnovers.
"We had as just as many turnovers as we did buckets," Henderson said. "So that doesn't help. We weren't strong with the ball. We were just making unbelievable plays that we don't usually make, most of them just giving them the basketball. They scored a lot of points off turnovers."
Clemson had lost 20 straight regular-season games to Duke, although it had won the most-recent game last March in the ACC Tournament.
"It was an excellent win," Coach Oliver Purnell of Clemson said. "I thought we played very well and our full-court pressure was very good. We were able to set the tone going into the half and came out in the second and made shots. We really embraced the atmosphere and were comfortable."
Duke will return home to play Miami on Saturday.
"I think this shows we still have a lot of growth to do as a team," McClure said. "We've had some struggles on the road. Teams have thrown the first punch and we've got knocked back, but fortunately in the past we've been able to make comebacks. But we couldn't stop the onslaught tonight.
"I don't think anyone's going to get this taste out of our mouth in a long time. I don't think anybody has felt like this."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT
Smith 23 1-7 0-0 2-2 0 1 3
Scheyer 29 1-8 0-0 1-3 3 0 3
Henderson 26 5-13 5-6 1-5 0 3 16
Singler 24 2-8 2-6 2-7 2 4 6
Thomas 26 3-3 4-4 3-5 0 3 10
Pocius 2 0-3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Williams 11 0-1 1-2 1-1 0 2 1
Plumlee 12 1-3 0-0 1-1 0 1 2
Paulus 18 1-3 0-1 0-0 1 1 2
McClure 18 1-2 0-0 0-2 1 0 2
Zoubek 11 1-1 0-0 2-2 0 2 2
Totals 200 16-52 12-19 15-30 7 17 47
Percentages: FG .308, FT .632. 3-Point Goals: 3-13, .231 (Smith 1-1, Scheyer 1-2, Henderson 1-6, Paulus 0-1, Singler 0-1, Pocius 0-2). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 3 (Thomas, Plumlee, Singler). Turnovers: 16 (Singler 5, Smith 4, Scheyer 2, Henderson 2, Williams, Paulus, Thomas). Steals: 5 (Paulus, Pocius, Smith, Singler, Scheyer). Technical Fouls: None.
CLEMSON Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT
Rivers 31 4-12 3-5 1-7 4 3 11
Stitt 24 0-4 0-1 1-6 4 3 0
Oglesby 24 6-16 0-0 1-1 0 3 17
Sykes 14 2-3 0-0 2-4 0 2 4
Booker 29 8-10 4-6 5-8 2 4 21
Potter 27 2-5 4-4 2-3 0 1 8
Smith 15 2-3 0-0 0-2 0 2 5
Young 16 0-2 0-0 1-3 3 1 0
Grant 20 4-5 0-0 3-4 0 2 8
Totals 200 28-60 11-16 18-41 13 21 74
Percentages: FG .467, FT .688. 3-Point Goals: 7-20, .350 (Oglesby 5-11, Booker 1-1, Smith 1-1, Potter 0-1, Stitt 0-1, Young 0-2, Rivers 0-3). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 8 (Booker 3, Stitt 2, Grant 2, Rivers). Turnovers: 12 (Stitt 4, Rivers 2, Young 2, Smith, Grant, Booker, Oglesby). Steals: 12 (Rivers 7, Smith, Grant, Oglesby, Sykes, Booker). Technical Fouls: None.
Duke 21 26 -- 47
Clemson 33 41 -- 74
A--10,000
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