J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing masked the 10th-ranked Blue Devils' weaknesses in the frontcourt as each scored 29 points-combining for almost three quarters of the team's total. Duke topped Michagin State for the second-consecutive year in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge with a 81-74 win Tuesday.
The captains played like captains as Duke fought off the relentless Spartans to win its first big game of the season.
J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing masked the 10th-ranked Blue Devils’ (4-0) weakness in the frontcourt as each scored 29 points—combining for almost three quarters of the team’s total.
“J.J. pretty much had it in the first half,” Ewing said. “He had it rolling, and I took a couple of shots playing off him. In the second half, it was almost like we were taking turns.”
Duke never surrendered the lead after halftime as the backcourt duo nailed key threes, and No. 11 Michigan State (3-1) missed 5-of-8 free throws in the last three minutes. Duke topped Michigan State 81-74 for the second consecutive year in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge Tuesday in Cameron Indoor Stadium to win its toughest game before conference play begins.
The Spartans whittled away the Blue Devils’ lead throughout the second half. With Duke clinging to a two-point advantage and just over a minute remaining, Ewing hit a pull-up three, giving his team a cushion that it would maintain with solid free-throw shooting.
“There were a lot of good players out on the court, but he was the most mature player out there,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of his converted shooting guard who grew further into his point guard role Tuesday. “He had the look of a champion out on the court.”
Ewing put on a one-man show in the crucial middle stretch of the second half, scoring 9 of the team’s 11 points to keep Duke in the lead. As the rest of the Blue Devils struggled offensively, Ewing created his own shots, weaving around defenders under the basket and driving in the lane for pull-up jumpers.
When Ewing wasn’t hot, Redick was. The junior rescued Duke from its early 10-point deficit by hitting three consecutive three-pointers. It did not stop there for Redick, who shot 70-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes.
“They’re a hard team to defend when Redick is hitting three’s from the parking lot,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said.
Redick never left the court and Ewing played all but two minutes as Krzyzewski relied heavily on his starters. Shelden Williams and Shavlik Randolph both had three fouls with 16 minutes to go in the game, but with Duke’s lone big-man sub Reggie Love already in foul trouble, Krzyzewski left Williams on the court.
The physical game featured 51 fouls, and Williams let Michigan State center Paul Davis score two key buckets in the finals minutes as he tentatively avoided a fifth foul.
Izzo targeted Duke’s big men early, hoping to force them to the bench. Even though Williams and Randolph were not in foul trouble in the first half, frontcourt depth was problem for Krzyzewski, but Tuesday night, Duke shot around it.
Often double-teamed and pushed around by the bigger Davis, Williams took uncharacteristic shots from outside the paint. His only scoring in the first half was on a 12-foot fadeaway jumper from the baseline.
With two Spartans eyeing the center at all times, he had difficulty corralling rebounds and catching entry passes from teammates.
“Shelden really had a terrific game last year,” Krzyzewski said of Duke’s 72-50 rout in East Lansing, Mich., last season. “So they tried to take him out of the game this year, and they did.”
With all the attention focused on Williams in the first half, Redick was left open for shots behind the arc. After the break, however, the Spartans keyed in on the Redick, allowing Williams to score eight second-half points and leaving Ewing to do the real damage.
“In the second half we thought they were really going after J.J. because he had 21 at halftime,” Krzyzewski said. “We called more things, especially in the last 10 minutes for Daniel. Both teams were in foul trouble so we tried to get something off the dribble where we might go to the line or get a kick-out.”
But after Ewing’s mid-half scoring spurt, the Spartans made a comeback of their own. Following a free throw by Davis and a missed three-point attempt by Redick, Michigan State’s Shannon Brown finished a three-on-one fast break with a high-flying alley-oop dunk. Redick turned the ball over while driving through traffic on the baseline, and Davis finished on the other end with a strong move under the basket, cutting the Duke lead to two. Mistakes and poor free throw shooting after that cost the Spartans a shot at the victory.
“If they had hit their free throws, I think we still would have won,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said, “Because we didn’t mess up.”
Michigan State came out of the gate in a sprint, playing a run-and-gun style of offense and seemingly energized by the Cameron crowd. But after the Spartans jumped out to a 19-9 lead, they were hampered by offensive miscues, and the Blue Devils seem snatch every loose ball. With 7:26 remaining in the first half, Michigan State’s Kelvin Torbert was called for traveling twice and Davis was called for an offensive foul and traveling.
Duke took advantage of this series of turnovers. David McClure made an athletic shot from under the basket among three defenders, and Sean Dockery hit a pair of free throws to close the gap to two.
Ewing then hit a three pointer to give the Blue Devils the lead with 4:42 left in the first half. On the following play, Ewing laid down a huge one-handed dunk off a steal from Dockery, who started for the second-consecutive game and played 36 minutes.
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