Duke storms past Virginia

DURHAM

Coach Mike Krzyzewski contends that a little pain is good for a basketball team every now and then, but he had a hard time selling that argument to Virginia yesterday.

Krzyzewski's Duke team laid a hurting on its struggling opponent, taking a 79-54 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium to perhaps start another winning streak.

Getting a quick spark from smooth-shooting Gerald Henderson, Duke surged to a 43-21 halftime lead to take total control. Duke wasn't as sharp after halftime but carried a 65-42 lead into the final 8:13 and that was good enough to keep first place in the ACC.

Henderson said that Duke was intent on coming out strong and putting away Virginia as early as possible after losing 70-68 at Wake Forest last week and having a 10-game winning streak snapped.

"We wanted to really just take care of business," Henderson said. "Coming off a loss, we should play with so much fire and so much intensity. That's how we wanted to come out and that's how we did."

Henderson said that coming back in near-dominant fashion was a point of emphasis for Krzyzewski and for the team in four days of preparation since the Wake Forest loss.

"Absolutely, because there's got to be some kind of fire in you after a loss," Henderson said. "It's nothing like you just try to show. It's just something that's there, because the last time you played, the last people saw you play, you were a loser. We don't want to be seen as that."

Duke improved to 19-2 overall and 6-1 in the ACC. It beat Virginia for the 15th time in 15 games when ranked as the No. 1 team in either national poll.

Virginia fell to 7-10 and 1-5. Its losing streak in Cameron reached 13 games. Duke forced Virginia into 23 turnovers, a season high.

Virginia was averaging 14 turnovers for the season. It had 17 in the decisive first half, four coming on charging fouls. Duke forced five consecutive turnovers in a three-minute period starting with 18 minutes left in the first half.

Henderson led Duke with 18 points and four assists, a team high. Nolan Smith added 15 points and Jon Scheyer added 11 points and seven rebounds, Duke's high off the boards. Duke's bench generated 25 points and nine rebounds.

Sylven Landesberg overcame early foul trouble to lead Virginia with 20 points. The game was his 10th of the season with at least 20 points, which set a Virginia school record for freshmen and broke Ralph Sampson's record of nine set in the 1980 season.

Duke never trailed, largely because of Henderson's hot hand early. He scored 14 of Duke's first 30 points, and had outscored Virginia by himself at that time. Virginia had 11 points then.

Henderson said he is as confident in his shooting now as he has ever been in three seasons at Duke.

"I feel like I don't take a whole bunch of difficult shots, whether it be a kick-out from one of my teammates or a pull-up where I just elevate over guys and shoot it," Henderson said. "I feel like those are good shots for us. I feel like I'm the best I've been since I've been here."

Virginia is not a good shooting team from the perimeter and its problems were compounded by two early fouls on Landesberg. He drew his second foul with 16:28 left in the first half when called for charging for the second time and Coach Dave Leitao took him out for 10 minutes to prevent a third quick foul.

Virginia was unable to score consistently with Landesberg out and Duke steadily built its margin. Virginia cut the lead to 37-21 but Duke's defense clamped down and didn't allow another point in the final 4:27 of the half.

Duke ended the half by hammering Virginia with another basket. Duke gained possession after forcing the last of Virginia's first-half turnovers and Henderson took a 3-pointer that missed but the ball went out of bounds off a Virginia player.

Duke played for one final shot, taken by Greg Paulus. His accuracy had been off the entire half, with six misfires in seven shots, but his 3-pointer from the right wing was on target.

Duke built its lead to 27 points in the first five minutes after halftime and made sure that no Virginia comeback was in the works. Landesberg started hitting shots but Duke was too strong for one player to overcome.

Scheyer said that the game and the effort were exactly what Duke needed after losing at Wake Forest.

"This was a huge game for us," Scheyer said. "We needed to take care of business. We needed to win today.

"We got a win. We're in first place now. Obviously we've got a huge week ahead but it was definitely a good step after coming off that loss."

■ Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.

VIRGINIA Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Diane 14 0-1 0-0 0-2 0 2 0

Scott 26 4-8 2-3 2-4 0 3 10

Sene 17 2-2 0-3 1-2 0 2 4

Zeglinski 32 4-9 0-0 1-2 5 2 8

Landesberg 29 8-10 3-3 0-2 1 2 20

Farrakhan 8 0-3 2-2 1-1 1 0 2

Baker 15 1-2 0-0 1-2 1 1 3

Tucker 21 0-3 0-0 1-3 0 2 0

Sherrill 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Jones 21 1-7 0-0 0-5 2 2 3

Tat 9 0-3 0-0 0-2 0 0 0

Meyinsse 7 1-1 2-2 0-2 0 1 4

Totals 200 21-49 9-13 8-29 10 18 54

Percentages: FG .429, FT .692. 3-Point Goals: 3-12, .250 (Landesberg 1-1, Baker 1-2, Jones 1-5, Farrakhan 0-1, Zeglinski 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 3 (Diane 2, Sene). Turnovers: 23 (Landesberg 5, Tucker 4, Zeglinski 3, Diane 3, Farrakhan 2, Baker 2, Jones 2, Sene, Scott). Steals: 4 (Zeglinski 2, Landesberg, Scott). Technical Fouls: None.

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Singler 24 2-7 1-2 2-5 1 2 5

Henderson 25 6-13 4-4 1-3 4 2 18

Thomas 20 2-3 1-2 1-4 2 3 5

Smith 26 7-10 0-1 1-4 2 2 15

Scheyer 25 4-9 0-0 5-7 2 4 11

Paulus 22 3-11 1-2 0-2 1 1 9

Czyz 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

McClure 16 0-1 0-0 0-2 2 0 0

Williams 16 2-7 1-2 1-1 1 0 6

Plumlee 8 2-2 0-0 0-1 0 2 4

Johnson 1 1-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 2

Zoubek 14 2-3 0-0 2-3 0 1 4

Totals 200 31-67 8-14 14-34 15 17 79

Percentages: FG .463, FT .571. 3-Point Goals: 9-27, .333 (Scheyer 3-5, Henderson 2-5, Paulus 2-7, Williams 1-2, Smith 1-2, McClure 0-1, Singler 0-5). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 3 (Henderson, Zoubek, Thomas). Turnovers: 9 (Henderson 2, Paulus, Czyz, Thomas, Singler, Smith, McClure, Scheyer). Steals: 9 (Williams 2, Henderson 2, Singler, Smith, Scheyer, McClure, Zoubek). Technical Fouls: None.

Virginia 21 33 -- 54
Duke 43 36 -- 79

A--9,314.

Game day

Appalachian State at Georgia Southern

• Site, time: Hanner Field House, Statesboro, Ga.; 7:30 p.m.

• Radio: WKBC 97.3

• Of note: Appalachian State could gain ground in the Southern Conference's North Division race tonight but it would take a road win to do so. The Mountaineers (8-11, 5-6) trail Western Carolina by 1½ games in the division standings. Western Carolina plays at league-leader Davidson tonight. Georgia Southern (7-12, 5-6) is 4-1 at home in SoCon games this season. The Eagles are coming off a 100-87 loss at Chattanooga on Saturday. Antoine Johnson, a junior guard, totaled 17 points and eight rebounds in that game. The Eagles have given up an average of 78.8 points a game, more than any other SoCon team.

Winston-Salem State at Bethune-Cookman

• Site, time: Moore Gymnasium, Daytona Beach, Fla., 7:30 p.m.

• TV/Radio: None

• Of note: The Rams (5-14) broke a six-game losing streak on Saturday against Florida A&M in Tallahassee. The Rams improved to 3-10 on the road and will try to win their first consecutive road games of the season. Last season the two teams split, with the Rams winning 76-71 in double overtime in Daytona Beach. The Wildcats won 60-50 in Winston-Salem. The Wildcats (11-10) are coming off a 59-51 loss to S.C. State, a team the Rams beat on Dec. 6. The Wildcats are coached by Clifford Reed, whose son, C.J., is on the team this season. Reed, a 6-3 freshman guard, leads the Wildcats in scoring at 14.3 points a game. He also leads in assists at 3.8 points a game.