NEW YORK - It was not as exciting in their house. Last season, St. John's beat Duke 83-82 in Cameron Indoor Stadium in a thriller that gave the name "Bootsy" a much less innocuous connotation.
This time around, it was the No. 3 Blue Devils' (23-3) chance to portray the unwelcome houseguest, pounding the Red Storm (13-11) 91-59 in Madison Square Garden.
Duke ended the first half with a huge momentum-buster that proved to be game's turning point. Quelling a five-point St. John's run, Jason Williams drove coast-to-coast for a layup at the buzzer. Duke left for the break with an 11-point lead.
According to Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Williams' play to end the half set up a halftime game plan that the Blue Devils executed brilliantly in the second session.
"Jason made a great play at the end of the half," Krzyzewski said. "I told them, I said, 'You know, these guys, they're going to keep coming at you. We have to attack them at the start of this half.' I thought we did."
Indeed, Duke proceeded to start the second half with an 8-0 run from which the Red Storm never recovered.
Five points into the run, and two minutes into the half, Williams stole the ball from St. John's point guard Omar Cook and passed to Shane Battier. The senior, who struggled from long range in the first half, hit his first three-pointer of the afternoon to give Duke a 19-point lead, its biggest advantage so far.
"I need to do a lot of the dirty work," Williams said of the steal, which he made before falling to the floor in a straddle and dishing the ball. "That's what I'm expected to do as the point guard."
Battier finished with 18 points,
"We played very well on the defensive end of the court," Krzyzewski said. "Battier was magnificent. He was unbelievable. He really gives our guys confidence on that end of the court."
Whenever St. John's erase some of its deficit, which grew as the game wore on, the Duke defense denied the Red Storm-mostly by denying Cook the right to penetrate and pass to Anthony Glover, who nearly doubled his season scoring average with 23 points. Meanwhile, the Blue Devil offense was clicking, especially in the second half.
Duke went up by 20 with about 13 minutes left in the second half, when Chris Duhon hit a three-pointer to ignite another Duke run. Four minutes later, following treys from Battier and Mike Dunleavy, the Blue Devil lead had swelled to 32. Finally, St. John's-which features two freshman starters- seemed tired and out of the kind of confidence it takes an unranked squad to upset a powerful, and vengeful, group of Blue Devils.
"There's no question that St. John's was ready to play today," Krzyzewski said. "They played really well. And a younger team can get a little bit emotionally tired. The emotion tires you out, especially if you're playing from behind. I thought they wore down, and we have a veteran team. We took advantage of that."
In the first half, however, the Red Storm hung with Duke early. Cook assists led to Glover baskets, and the Blue Devils continued their recent woes from the free-throw line. Duke shot only 20 percent from the line in the first half, and the misses were a team effort-Carlos Boozer, Dunleavy, Casey Sanders, Battier and Williams all joined in with gaffes from the foul line that have confounded Duke lately.
"It's one of the things I would have never thought we would have a problem with, just because we're such good shooters," Krzyzewski said. "We take the three like it's a layup at times. We shot better from the three-point line in the first half than from the free-throw line."
In addition to Battier's defensive presence, Dunleavy played an important role on offense, rebounding and tipping in teammates' missed shots. In fact, all three of Dunleavy's offensive rebounds resulted in tip-in buckets.
"Dunleavy's offensive boards throughout the game were huge for us," Krzyzewski said. "Mike's been doing that for about three weeks now, where he's just been hitting the boards so well."
Williams led Duke with 26 points, and Duhon added 15 off the bench. Glover scored 23 for the Red Storm, while freshman sensation Cook was held to just six points-all in the first half.
St. John's coach Mike Jarvis commended the St. John's fans who stayed at Madison Square Garden throughout the second half, even though the game's outcome was hardly a mystery. Jarvis also issued a prediction about his up-and-coming team, which has a home-and-home game exchange agreement with Duke for the next several years. The Red Storm will come to Cameron again next season.
"The day will come when, in fact, two years from now, when Duke comes back, I promise you people won't be staying just to support us," Jarvis said. "Because we're going to continue to play."
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