Blue Devils dominate on both ends of court

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just call it Cameron Square Garden.

J.J. Redick had 20 points to lead six players in double figures and No. 3 Duke beat Texas (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today; No. 11 AP) 89-61 on Saturday. The game was played before a pro-Blue Devils sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden that sounded as if it were at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

"This was like a home game but still, in a building like this, it was a special experience," Redick said.

The Blue Devils (8-1) won their fifth straight, and just like the previous four they did it with defense.

"Our defense has been consistently excellent recently," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And we didn't do a bad job executing on offense. Today we played extremely well."

Texas (5-2) missed its first nine shots and shot only 25 percent (9-for-36) in falling behind 48-29 at halftime. It didn't get much better in the second half for the Longhorns. The Blue Devils pressured the ball all over the court, forcing the Texas guards to try and get rid of it in a hurry, and that meant low percentage shots.

The crowd of 19,948 had plenty to cheer as Duke shot 62 percent in the first half (18-for-29) and 57 percent (31-for-54) for the game. The tenacious defense also allowed the Blue Devils to get out on the break and no play drew a bigger cheer than Chris Duhon's behind-the-back pass to Luol Deng for a dunk that made it 40-23 with 4:10 left in the half.

Duhon had 15 points and nine assists, while Shelden Williams had 14 points, Deng 12 and Shavlik Randolph and Sean Dockery each had 10.

"Duhon was spectacular," Krzyzewski said. "His quickness and his verve throughout the game gave us so much confidence."

Royal Ivey and Brad Buckman each had 12 points for Texas, which shot 32 percent for the game (21-for-66). Ivey had nine assists.

"We missed shots early and they stayed with their game plan," Ivey said. "They were stepping up and got the game going the way they wanted."

In its last four games, Duke allowed opponents an average of 50 points and held them to 37 percent shooting while forcing 20 turnovers a game.

Texas entered the game with a plus-18.5 rebound margin. Duke outrebounded the Longhorns 43-34 with Williams and Randolph each grabbing nine. Texas did have a 21-14 advantage on the offensive end, but most weren't converted into points.

"We felt if we could come even on the boards we'd have a shot at winning and we wound up outrebounding them," Krzyzewski said.

Texas' only other loss this season was also at Madison Square Garden. Arizona beat the Longhorns 91-83 in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 9.

The only other meeting between Duke and Texas was also in Madison Square Garden, a 95-69 victory by the Blue Devils in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT on Nov. 22, 2000.

"We didn't play the way we're capable of playing," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "The difference was in the post players. They spread you out because they can shoot it. We had to put pressure on them in the post and we didn't."

Even though there was a section of "Cameron Crazies" as there is in the campus arena, a group seated one level up behind the Duke bench provided the sarcastic cheer.

"Just like Clemson," they chanted six minutes into the second half with Duke leading by 28. That was a reference to the five-game winning streak Krzyzewski had over Barnes, who used to coach at Clemson in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Mike Jarvis, who was fired by St. John's on Friday, sat in the first row behind the Duke bench. He and Krzyzewski are longtime friends.

"I feel badly for him and our profession," Krzyzewski said. "I can't think of anyone fired before the conference season even starts unless there was an NCAA violation or something huge and there wasn't here. He's a dear friend and he sat with my family that was here."