Duke turns off State's star power

If you think the first half of Duke versus N.C. State was ugly, you are wrong.

Of course no one likes to see Duke down the entire first half, or Gavin Grant steal a hand-off from Shelden Williams to Sean Dockery and then sink a jumper to make it 17-12. The Blue Devils offense struggled to maintain possession and pass the ball inside to Williams.

'They did a really good job on [J.J. Redick] in the first half and for us to get it down to three at the end of the half was monumental,' head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. 'We couldn"t get the ball to Shelden real well, and J.J., they took him out of the game.'

So at first glance it was easy for anyone to glare at Duke"s first half with disapproval and disappointment. But it would be unwarranted.

The Blue Devils were able to come out on top at the final buzzer because they did exactly what they needed to do from the beginning.

They shut down Julius Hodge and Ilian Evtimov.

'I knew today my first priority had to be to be a leader for my team and try and stop [Hodge] the best way I could,' Ewing said. 'I did that pretty much throughout the first half. Like you said he had a little layup before halftime. But that was my first priority to play defense and lead my team.'

In addition to shutting down the reigning ACC Player of the Year, the Blue Devils also contained 6-foot-7 big man Ilian Evtimov. Evtimov, who dominated the Blue Devils" defense in last year"s 78-74 upset with 15 points, was held to two points from a pair of free throws.

So although keeping these two players in check may have been the only thing the Blue Devils had going for them in the first half, it was essentially the only thing they absolutely needed to be doing. Throughout the game Duke"s bench kept the Wolfpack from gaining any significant lead, as Lee Melchionni contributed a career-high 16 points and DeMarcus Nelson added 15 more.

With Hodge down for the count and failing in an attempt to overcompensate at the beginning of the second half, the Blue Devils" offense was finally able to pull itself together and look inside to its big man.

'When you have a player as dominant as Shelden, I think the only thing you can do is hope to contain him,' Nelson said. 'You can slow him down but you"re not going to stop him.'

Contained in the first half, the Landlord owned the paint in the second, scoring 18 of his 22 points against State"s single coverage.

'We noticed they were just playing one-on-one against me and I kept scoring,' Williams said of his second half action. 'When they played a double team on me we had guys like Lee Melchionni and DeMarcus Nelson and it kind of opened things up.'

With some breathing room, the Blue Devils took the noise out of the crowd at the RBC Center and played like the No. 5 team they worked to become. But the most important footnote of Thursday"s victory over the Wolfpack was that Duke focused in on the greatest obstacle, recognized exactly what needed to be done and did it. Although it will be tougher against North Carolina and Wake Forest to come from behind in the second half, if the Blue Devils continue to eliminate the X-factor from their opponent"s offense, they have a better chance than anyone to defeat the top-ranked teams in the conference.