Miami Falls To No. 4 Duke, 92-83
Jan. 19, 2005
By STEVEN WINE
AP Sports Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) – The crowd was loud at tipoff, pumped up by theMiami Hurricanes’ surprising start in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Then Duke began to shoot.
Led by junior Shelden Williams’ career-high 30 points, the Blue Devils hit61 percent Wednesday night to win 92-83, showing ACC newcomer Miami the leagueisn’t so easy after all.
J.J. Redick added 21 points for Duke (14-0, 4-0 ACC), and Daniel Ewingscored 16 in 40 minutes.
“This was a great win,” Ewing said. “We knew it was going to be ahigh-energy atmosphere, their fans were going to be into it, and they weregoing to be ready to play. We followed our game plan pretty well. We justexecuted real well on both ends tonight.”
The Hurricanes (12-4, 3-2) had won their past three conference games, butthey fell behind early and trailed by 19 with 10 minutes left.
“We’re just going to keep striving for better things,” said Miami seniorWilliam Frisby, who tied a career high with 18 points. “We’re just holding achip on our shoulder now.”
Robert Hite, the Hurricanes’ scoring leader with an average of 19 points pergame, was held to six on 2-for-7 shooting. His first points came with 6{minutes left in the game when Duke led by 15.
Miami students, historically apathetic about the basketball program, beganlining up for tickets five hours before game time. Alex Rodriguez and AlonzoMourning were among those sitting in the front row as a sellout crowd of 7,000cheered on the Hurricanes, who averaged just 2,545 at home last season.
But Williams and Duke took the fans out of the game. Williams went 11-for-12from the field and 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, and he added sevenrebounds in 37 minutes.
“We’re getting the ball to him as much as we can,” Ewing said. “When hehas it, pretty much no one can stop him down there one-on-one.”
The Blue Devils shot 31-of-51 to finish above 50 percent for the thirdconsecutive game. They made 10 of 21 3-pointers.
“They shot the ball great,” Miami coach Frank Haith said. “They were verysound and didn’t make many mistakes.”
It was another impressive showing by a Blue Devils team with just eightrecruited scholarship players and four perimeter players in the startinglineup.
“We’re getting to our destination on a side street, not a superhighway,”coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We know who we are. We’re not an outstanding teambut we’re a good team, and we’re trying to get better.”
ACC scoring leader Guillermo Diaz had 25 points for Miami. Anthony Harrisadded 15, and Anthony King had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Hurricanes,who shot 46 percent.
That wasn’t enough against Duke. Penetrating inside early, the Blue Devilssank five shots in a row for a 16-10 lead. Miami made six of seven during onestretch and was up 17-16, then cooled off as Duke began to pull away.
“We wanted to change the way we’ve been starting games,” Williams said.”One of the things we wanted to do was get going early, and get some easybaskets if we could.”
Ewing made a pair of 3s during a 10-2 spurt by the Blue Devils for a 32-24lead. They were ahead 41-34 at halftime.
A 9-0 Duke run, including a dunk by Ewing on an alley-oop, made it 53-40early in the second half. Then the Blue Devils went outside, sinking five 3sduring a five-minute span for a 69-50 lead.
