A minute and a half into the game, Virginia head coach Dave Leitao didn't like what he saw and called a timeout after a 5-0 Duke start. But with the relentless Blue Devils running on all cylinders, that early break did nothing to halt Duke's winning tempo.
Duke built on its quick start and led wire-to-wire, notching an impressive 87-65 win in its ACC opener over the Cavaliers. After the game, head coach Mike Krzyzewski described the effort as his team's most complete of the season.
"I thought we didn't have one guy who didn't play hard or play pretty well," Krzyzewski said. "That's kind of the first game that that's happened."
The Blue Devils (13-1, 1-0 in the ACC) started off on an 18-6 run in the game's first six minutes and didn't let up, never letting Virginia (10-4, 0-1) pull closer than six points from that time on as they rolled to the win.
Duke had four players with double-digit points, paced by guard DeMarcus Nelson's game-high 20 on 8-of-12 shooting. That group of Nelson, Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer had tremendous success penetrating the Cavaliers' interior defense, giving Duke plenty of opportunities for kickout three-pointers. The Blue Devils hoisted a season-high 31 shots from beyond the arc and hit 11 of them in comparison to Virginia's four makes from three-point range.
"Defensively, we didn't keep the ball out of the paint enough to prevent the amount of open perimeter shots they got," Leitao said. "They have a number of guys, and not just one guy in [Greg] Paulus or [Nolan] Smith coming off the bench, but anybody--whether it's Nelson, or anybody all the way up to Singler-guys who can put the ball on the floor, make positive plays and really test a team's defense. They did it to us today."
Cavaliers guard Sean Singletary, who nailed a last-second floater against Duke in Charlottesville last season to give UVa a 68-66 win, had trouble getting anything going in his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Singletary finished with a team-high 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting, but he turned the ball over seven times and struggled to get into a rhythm. Singletary also fought through cramps that periodically sidelined him midway through the second half.
"Singletary is such a good guard, so you've got [to keep] constant attention on him," Krzyzewski said. "You just hope to hold him to a reasonable number, and 18 was fine-just so he doesn't go off, because he can play."
UVa's All-ACC guard was primarily defended by the duo of Nelson and Smith, who agitated Singletary and forced him into those seven turnovers. Krzyzewski also said he was pleased that Singletary only saw four attempts at the free throw line, where he is shooting 83.5 percent on the season. Duke's defenders also did an excellent job swarming the ball and denying their targets quality shot attempts.
"We were really active on defense," said Henderson, who had two of Duke's 12 turnovers. "Guys were in the passing lanes and pressuring the ball, and that was really important in imposing our will on them."
And against the nation's top rebounding team, the Blue Devils out-rebounded the Cavaliers 35-34. David McClure tied with Singler for a team-high six rebounds, and Lance Thomas chipped in off the bench with five boards, contributing for a team that was robbed of much of its frontcourt depth when center Brian Zoubek was lost to a foot injury last week.
"[Thomas] and Dave, they only scored one point between them, but they had 11 rebounds," Krzyzewski said. "If that position would get us 11 rebounds a game, that's a pretty good guy. I'd draft him.
"If they keep doing that, then they'll keep getting better, because both kids have had some interruptions in their seasons so far," Krzyzewski said.
Duke will continue it's ACC slate with a road game against Florida State Wednesday.
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