Blue Devils take /
By David Droschak
The Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — No. 2
Duke hasn’t dominated the ACC
the past five seasons by backing
down from a challenge. The Blue
Devils were determined not give
ground against their biggest rival
Sunday.
Duke (26-4, 13-3), playing at a
breakneck offensive pace without
their top inside threat, made At
lantic Coast Conference history by
winning or tying for their fifth
straight regular-season title with a
95-81 victory over No. 4 North Car
olina.
“This is the result of coming to
work every single day with the
dedication needed to be a champi
on,” said Duke’s Shane Battier,
who was spectacular in his final
regular-season ACC game. “Not
once, but five times. That will be
something to look back on.”
Duke lost by two points to the
Tar Heels (23-5, 13-3) in Durham a
month ago, missing 14 of 27 free
throws, but remained alive for a
No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourna
ment with a dominating offensive
show in the Smith Center.
“We’re Duke, this is a champi
onship program,” freshman Chris
Duhon said. “We’re not going to
lay down and lose for anybody. We
just came together as a team and
showed why we are still pretty
good.
“We came into this game not
worrying about Xs and Os,” added
Duhon, who scored 15 points and
had four assists in his first career
start. “This game was more about
heart and desire and a will to win.
We knew we were outsized, we
knew we were going against the
world, but we had a bigger heart, a
bigger will to come out and quiet
all the critics.”
Duke’s two stars were the heroes
in the Tobacco Road rematch as
the Blue Devils were 14-for-38
from 3-point range without center
Carlos Boozer, who watched from
the bench with a broken bone in
his right foot.
Jason Williams scored 33 points
and Battier added 25 points, 11 re
bounds and five blocks as Duke
won its third straight in Chapel
Hill for the first time since the ear
ly 1960s.
Many counted the Blue Devils
out of this one as soon as Boozer
went down in Tuesday’s loss to
Maryland. Everyone but Duke.
“Nobody expected us to win,”
Battier said. “Everybody was ready
to party on Franklin Street. I think
they’ve got the kegs lined up, but
we wanted to compete and play
hard and we knew if we did that
we would have a good shot a win
ning this game.”
ACC scoring leader Joseph Forte
led the Tar Heels with 21 points.
“The way they played broke our
rhythm,” UNC coach Matt Doherty
said. “I don’t think we were real
sharp handling the basketball.
You’ve got to give them a lot of
credit because they came into a
tough situation being a man
down.”
Williams came into the game
shooting 36 percent against the Tar
Heels in his career, but the point
guard was money in this one, go
ing 7-for-13 from 3-point range
while Battier was 4-for-10.
The 38 3-point attempts tied a
school record set earlier this sea
son against North Carolina A&T.
“Growing up and playing on the
playground that’s the way you play
all day in the summer,” Battier
said of Duke’s racehorse style that
wore out the taller Tar Heels. “To
come to Duke and be able to play
like that it’s like a dream come
true.”
Duke led by two at halftime, but
gradually pulled away midway
through the second half. The Blue
Devils went up 72-57 with 11:55
left on a layup by Mike Dunleavy,
who along with the rest of his
teammates looked twice as quick
Pez Sez
continued from page 9
the lead.
One would have a hard time ar
guing that postseason play is
what’s inspired the Ducks. Even if
they beat Oregon State this Satur
day — which they should —
they’re still a long-shot to make
the NCAA tourney. Head coach
Jody Runge has publicly spurned
the WNIT, and some players share
their coach’s opinion.
Meaning that even if the WNIT
relocated its final four to The Pit,
Oregon still might not take its in
vitation.
So there’s got to be something
else that’s powering this team.
Really, it all comes down to one
word.
Pride.
Anyone who’s ever talked
hoops with any of the Ducks’ five
seniors knows that team has
pride, and lots of it.
Anyone who’s ever seen the
two championship banners hang
ing in the rafters of Mac Court
must gain some understanding of
what’s expected from these play
ers, right from the moment they
don an Oregon jersey for the first
time.
Senior forward Lindsey Dion
said it best earlier this season:
“We don’t lose at the University of
Oregon.” That said, all that losing
must have been killing them.
The loss to UCLA put the Ducks
in a unique situation. Had they
beat the Bruins but lost to Ari
zona, ASU or Oregon State, they’d
probably be tournament-bound.
But UCLA is awful this season.
Losing at Pauley Pavilion, even if
Oregon wins out, could be the
nail in the coffin.
Even though Oregon’s tourna
ment hopes were slim-to-none af
ter losing at UCLA, the Ducks still
had hope. More importantly, they
knew that one more loss would
end those hopes.
And with their backs against
the biggest wall one could imag
ine, the Ducks put their collective
foot down. No more losing. Not
this season.
They won’t, either. They’ll beat
the Beavers in another physical
Civil War, and their postseason
will still hang in the balance.
It would be unfortunate for this
team to not get into the Big Dance.
Oregon is on a tear that’s been un
matched this season. Under
Runge, the Ducks have never
made it past the second round of
the NCAAs. Dare it be said? With
the way the Ducks are rolling
now, a Sweet 16 wouldn’t be out
of the question.
But any NCAA action is too un
certain to predict. Runge knows it,
the Ducks know it.
What Oregon also knows is that
it can end its season on a winning
note. The seniors know they can
ACC title
as the Tar Heels, who were repeat
edly beaten down the floor.
Doherty tried to fire his team up
by getting a technical two minutes
later, but his team could only pull
within 10 as he was forced to
bench big men Brendan Haywood
and Kris Lang for much of the sec
ond half to try to match up with
Duke.
“We made them think about us
instead of focusing on them,” Bat
tier said.
The Tar Heels were shooting for
their first outright ACC regular-sea
son title in eight seasons, but the
Smith Center crowd instead exited
early on Senior Day as Duke im
proved to 19-0 this season when
scoring 90 or more points.
“They took something away
from us — definitely,” North Car
olina’s Jason Capel said.
The victory also gave Duke an
ACC-record 124 wins over a four
year period, breaking the mark of
the Duke teams from 1989-92.
North Carolina failed to take ad
vantage of the absence of Boozer
on the inside as Haywood had two
shots blocked by Casey Sanders
early and wasn’t much of a factor
in the opening 20 minutes.
Sanders ended up fouling out in
only 11 minutes, but Duke really
didn’t need his inside game.
Part of the problem for the Tar
Heels was Duke’s trapping zone
defense, which confused North
Carolina and bogged down its of
fense until late in the half.
Meanwhile, Duke, which aver
aged 27.4 3-point attempts over the
last seven games, took 22 from be
yond the arc in the first half, get
ting two over the final 1:20 from
Williams to forge to take the two
point lead at halftime.
Williams and Battier had 32 of
Duke’s 42 first-half points, taking
over on the offensive end with
Boozer watching from the bench
on crutches.
be remembered as the team that
should’ve made it, rather than the
team that almost made it.
Just one more game.
Mac Court won’t get another
banner to show for this season,
but the Mac Court faithful will al
ways remember watching their
champions.
Scott Pesznecker is assistant sports editor
for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be
reached at pezsez1@hotmail.com.
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