Devils down Hoyas 76-67 to improve to 16-1

DURHAM

Duke fought off Georgetown yesterday afternoon with the help of a technical foul at a critical moment in the second half to take a 76-67 victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The call went against Hoyas center Greg Monroe, while he was sitting on the bench. The Hoyas had sliced the Blue Devils' 15-point lead to 46-42 before the technical, but the Blue Devils used the call to score the game's next six points and regain control for the final 14:21.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he thought that the technical was one of two crucial calls, along with a call on Duke's Kyle Singler that gave him a fourth foul with 9:24 left.

"It gave us two points," Krzyzewski said. "It kind of stopped the game for a while and maybe we righted the ship."

Georgetown had a chance to cut deeper into Duke's lead when it was down four, but missed a shot. Henry Sims was called for a foul while he was trying to grab the rebound. Coach John Thompson III of Georgetown spoke to official John Cahill after the play, standing in front of his bench.

Cahill walked toward the baseline. Thompson walked toward Cahill and continued to talk, although not heatedly. Cahill walked up the side by the Georgetown bench, turned and called the technical on a shocked Monroe.

Monroe said that he said nothing to Cahill at any point. The call also saddled him with a fourth personal foul.

"A lot of people were saying things," Monroe said. "I don't even believe (Cahill) was really looking at the bench but I know I definitely didn't say anything. I can't say if I heard someone else, but I know I definitely didn't say anything."

Jon Scheyer made both free throws after the call. Singler grabbed an offensive rebound, one of 16 rebounds he had in the game, and stuck in a follow shot, on Duke's play after the free throws.

Scheyer forced a turnover when he stole a pass and sped for a layup. The lead was 52-42 only 72 seconds after resting at only four points. Georgetown had another comeback to make.

Thompson said that the technical foul wasn't the reason that Georgetown lost in Cameron for third time in three games. "The technical was a key part in the game," Thompson said. "Let's not run from that. It was a key part of the game. Greg now has four (fouls). It clearly altered how they attacked us and what we could do.

"But that's not the reason that we ended up with less points than them tonight. (Duke) played very well. They made plays."

Duke built a 61-45 lead with 10:40 left. It never let the lead slip below eight points until 38.8 seconds were left, despite Singler having to play more cautiously after drawing his fourth foul.

Duke won its eighth consecutive game. Scheyer said that Duke needed every resource that it could find to outlast one of the Big East's top teams.

"They're used to winning and they came in here expecting to win," Scheyer said. "Neither team was going to back down. It was kind of like an ACC game, how physical it was. It was like a fight."

Singler added 15 points to his board work. Gerald Henderson led Duke with 23 points after hitting his first seven shots. Scheyer scored 11 points and Greg Paulus added 10 points off the bench in 23 active minutes in what Krzyzewski called his best performance of the season.

DaJuan Summers led Georgetown with 21 points and seven rebounds.

Duke (16-1) led 40-29 at halftime behind its defense. Georgetown (12-4) managed small leads for most of the first 12 minutes and was up 27-24, but did not make another field goal in the final 7:53 of the half.

Georgetown missed nine shots and had three turnovers in its final 12 possessions of the half. Scheyer gave Duke the lead for good when he nailed a 3-pointer from just to the right of the top of the key for a 32-29 advantage with 4:47 left before the halftime break.

"It was two hard-nosed teams," Krzyzewski said. "I thought we played well enough to win and I thought that they played well enough to win. The last 10 minutes with Kyle in foul trouble was interesting, but we hung in there and made our free throws and didn't make mistakes down at the end."

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

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

Summers 37 7-12 5-10 1-7 0 1 21

Monroe 28 6-7 0-0 2-6 4 4 12

Wright 22 1-6 1-1 0-4 5 0 3

Freeman 32 7-13 0-0 2-3 1 3 15

Sapp 19 0-2 0-1 1-2 2 2 0

Clark 26 4-7 0-0 0-3 2 4 9

Vaughn 6 0-0 2-2 1-1 0 0 2

Sims 6 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0

Wattad 24 1-3 2-4 0-1 1 3 5

Totals 200 26-51 10-18 8-29 15 19 67

Percentages: FG .510, FT .556. 3-Point Goals: 5-15, .333 (Summers 2-4, Wattad 1-2, Clark 1-3, Freeman 1-3, Sapp 0-1, Wright 0-2). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 5 (Monroe 2, Sims, Vaughn, Wright). Turnovers: 14 (Monroe 4, Clark 3, Summers 2, Sapp 2, Freeman 2, Wright). Steals: 8 (Summers 4, Monroe, Clark, Freeman, Wattad). Technical Fouls: Monroe.

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

Singler 36 7-19 0-0 6-16 1 4 15

McClure 19 1-1 0-0 0-2 1 4 2

Henderson 34 10-15 0-0 1-4 3 1 23

Smith 31 3-6 2-2 0-2 0 1 9

Scheyer 38 2-7 6-6 1-4 5 1 11

Paulus 23 3-8 2-3 0-0 2 3 10

Pocius 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 0

Williams 2 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2

Plumlee 7 1-1 2-2 0-0 0 3 4

Thomas 3 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 0

Zoubek 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0

Totals 200 28-58 12-13 10-32 14 18 76

Percentages: FG .483, FT .923. 3-Point Goals: 8-21, .381 (Henderson 3-5, Paulus 2-5, Smith 1-1, Scheyer 1-4, Singler 1-6). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 3 (Henderson 2, Singler). Turnovers: 12 (Henderson 3, Singler 3, Plumlee 2, Smith, McClure, Scheyer). Steals: 8 (Scheyer 3, Henderson 2, Smith, McClure, Paulus). Technical Fouls: None.

Georgetown 29 38 -- 67
Duke 40 36 -- 76

A--9,314