Duke needed several big plays from co-captain Daniel Ewing down the stretch to secure a win of Davidson Monday night in the teams second game of the season. The Blue Devils, after trailing for a large potion of the first half, built a halftime lead and extended it after the break. Davidson, however, clawed back to test Duke down the stretch. CHARLOTTE -- Daniel Ewing stole the ball from Davidson forward Logan Kosmalski at the top of the key with 5:02 left in the game and there was nothing but clear sailing between him and the basket. With the Wildcats in the middle of a 27-9 run that had sliced Duke's 20-point lead to just four over the course of 10 minutes, the senior captain knew what he had to do.
Ewing's right-handed, breakaway dunk pushed Duke's margin to 57-51, silenced the raucous Davidson fans and brought the Blue Devil fans back to life. The margin would not drop below six for the rest of the game as Duke pulled away to win 74-61.
"They had a chance to cut the lead to two or one with a two or three-point play," Ewing said. "The play was there, and I made it. I got the finish and obviously it was a turnaround point in the game. It kind of changed the game around, changed the momentum a little bit. That was a big play for us."
No. 9 Duke (2-0) received a scare against the Wildcats (1-1) Monday in the Charlotte Coliseum. In front of a crowd of 8,793, the Blue Devils overcame Davidson's first-half advantage, weathered the Wildcats' mid-second half tear and put the game away in the end, avoiding the upset.
After Duke opened the second half with a 13-2 run, the Blue Devils settled for outside shots and lost their offensive rhythm. Davidson had a spurt of its own with accurate outside shooting, necessitating Ewing's late-game heroics.
The Wildcats shot 5-for-8 from three-point range during their second-half flurry, during which guard Brendan Winters contributed a trio of threes. For the game, Winters scored 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting, including 4-of-7 from behind the arc. Kosmalski contributed nine points during the Wildcats' second-half run and finished with a career-high 25.
"They play hard and smart--they're a difficult team to defend," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "One of the things that makes their team difficult to defend is that they scored from a lot of spots.... Kosmalski played a man's game--he was the best big man on the court and gave them a presence, and he lifted his team with that."
After Ewing's dunk ended the Wildcats' run, the guard helped the Blue Devils put the game away. On Duke's next possession, forward Shavlik Randolph was fouled on a put-back attempt and only made the first attempt. Ewing leaped into the air and grabbed the rebound before crashing to the court and passing to guard Sean Dockery.
The ball eventually worked its way back to Ewing, who swished a three-pointer from the left wing to lift Duke's lead to 10.
"I'm the captain of the team, and I'm able to do a lot of things for our team," Ewing said. "If I'm able to make a play--whether it be making a steal, making a bucket, making an extra pass to the guy that's open--I want to do whatever it takes to win."
Even with Ewing's performance, the player Krzyzewski said was most essential to keeping Duke in the game in the early stages was the normally low-scoring Dockery. The junior defensive stopper nailed two three-pointers in the first half as the teams battled back and forth.
Although Duke staked out a 5-2 advantage two minutes into the first half, Davidson led for the next 13:36, with the lead swelling to as many as seven points. An 11-0 Duke run to close out the half, which included both of Dockery's three-pointers, provided the Blue Devils with a seven-point halftime advantage, 29-22.
"I've been working so hard on it, I might as well shoot it," said Dockery of his two long-range shots. "People don't respect me. You know, we've got J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing on this team, so they're going to leave me open. I worked on it all day, all night [this summer]." Dockery's hot close to the first half earned him a second-half start, and he made the most of it. He recorded an assist and a steal as Duke went on another scoring spree, an 11-2 burst that lasted 4:01 and pushed the team's lead to 20 points.
The lead would not stay that large as the Wildcats were able to chip away most of it before Duke closed the game out.
"That's what Duke's known for: the patented Duke run," Kosmalski said. "We were victim to that tonight."
NOTES
Randolph and Shelden Williams each picked up four fouls, with only one foul apiece coming on the defensive end.... Dockery's previous career best effort was 12 points last season against St. John's.... Redick attempted his first free throw of the season on Duke's first possession. Though he missed his first attempt, he did not miss another for the rest of the game finishing 5-for-6.... Duke shot 43.1 percent for the game, but just 28.0 percent from three-point range. Davidson made only 38.3 percent of its shots, but shot 34.8 percent from long distance.... The Wildcats scored 16 second-chance points, while the Blue Devils only scored eight.
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