ANAHEIM, Calif. - Dahntay Jones hoped that his fastbreak dunk off a Daniel Ewing pass would help to ignite a Duke run. But rather than spark his team, it was Kansas big man Nick Collison who caught fire.
Jones' dunk gave Duke a 56-54 edge with 9:05 remaining, but the lead would prove to be short lived. Collison responded with a fastbreak layup, a three-point play, another layup off of a feed from guard Aaron Miles and a short-range jumper. All told, it was a three minute, 27 second stretch in which Collison would outscore the Blue Devils 9-1 and give Kansas a lead that it would not squander for the rest of the game.
Collison's nine-point outburst stood in stark contrast to the offensive output of the Blue Devils, who would score only three more field goals before the game ended. The run was part of a career-high 33-point evening for Collison, who also pulled down 19 boards for the 14th double-double of his career.
"He's got great moves for a big man," said Duke center Casey Sanders. "He's as agile as me, and he's got about 30 pounds on me. He has so many moves and so much experience, and that's something that the other big guys that we've played haven't had. He knows what it takes to win and he works his ass off."
Sanders saw Collison's abilities live and in person Thursday, as the Tampa, Fla., native spent all of his 28 minutes of action trying to guard Collison, who played all 40 minutes. Sanders had success at times - he recorded five blocks for the game, tying a career-high - but ultimately was unable to contain the Jayhawk senior, who was 14-of-22 from the field.
"We knew coming in that we were going to have our hands full," Sanders said. "We just tried to get out there and slow him down."
While Sanders acknowledged that facing the big men in the ACC this year was not the same as his task against Collison, he did point out that he had three years of experience working against a similarly talented player in the paint.
"With [Collison's] agility and his size, I really felt like I was practicing against [Carlos Boozer]," Sanders said. "I was just trying to think of every way possible I could stop this guy and how I could make things hard for him."
Sanders was not the only Duke played charged with the task of stopping the NABC first team All-American. Shelden Williams saw 13 minutes of action, while Michael Thompson played only one minute before picking up two fouls and returning to the bench.
"He played great tonight," Thompson said of Collison. "There wasn't much that we really could do."
Although he had a decent first half, it was in the second 20 minutes that Collison truly dominated, as the Iowa Falls, Iowa native went 9-of-12 from the floor for 19 points while also collecting 11 rebounds.
"In the first half they kept me from getting the ball," Collison said. "They were really trying to get me to be passive. I just kept moving and got some openings."
For Collison, those openings tended to come a bit easier Thursday than they did in games this season against conference foes.
"In the Big 12, a lot of the teams have big strong guys that beat on you," Collison said. "Duke chooses to play four guards, so there's some more room in there and the guys aren't as big and strong. It was easier to operate."
Given the sub-par night had by fellow senior Kirk Hinrich, who scored only two points while going 1-of-9 from the field, Collison's performance stood out as the sole reason why the Jayhawks now move on to face Arizona in the West Regional finals Saturday evening.
"If you had told me that [Hinrich] would have gone 1-for-9, I would have thought we had a bad night," Kansas head coach Roy Williams said. "But this team isn't Kirk only or Nick only, [though] at times tonight it might have seemed like it was only Nick.
"I told [Collison] in the locker room, 'Man, did you play your buns off tonight.'"
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