ATLANTA REGION
Duke 90
Seton Hall 62
RALEIGH – They could have played this one in the Meadowlands, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Maybe if P.J. Carlesimo had showed up with his 1989 NCAA Tournament runnersup, Seton Hall would have had a chance against Duke. Maybe if they let Louis Orr go one-on-one with Mike Krzyzewski, Seton Hall would be in the Sweet 16 today.
A Big Blue Machine steamrolled Seton Hall 90-62 yesterday.
Chris Duhon, bruised rib and all, locked up Hall point guard Andre Barrett (eight meaningless points, five assists), while J.J. Redick (21 points) exploded out of his shooting slump. T-t-t-hat’s Hall, folks.
Duke was too athletic, too poised, too disciplined, too big and too tough for 21-10 Seton Hall.
This,” Orr said, “is a tough pill to swallow.”
The No. 1-seeded Devils (29-5) will meet the Illinois-Cincinnati winner in Atlanta.
The Devils, setting a fast pace by design, shot 58.6 percent from the field and limited the Pirates to 37 percent shooting while marching to a 42-28 halftime lead. “That’s pretty tough in 36 hours to play Arizona and Duke,” Krzyzewski said. “We had an edge today.”
Redick came out on fire, scoring 10 of Duke’s first 14 points, including three free throws after Marcus Toney-El had fouled him somewhere around downtown Durham. “I’m a rhythm player, so if I can hit my first shot usually I’m gonna be successful for the rest of the game,” Redick said.
The relentless Devils put on a clinic in hit-the-open man basketball and tenacious defense and dominated the boards. The Hall would get one shot and nothing more. Duke outscored the Hall 24-10 in the paint. “We did not play physical enough,” Orr said.
Duhon’s only two points of the half came when he received a gift pass under the basket from J.R. Morris, a play that personified the Hall for most of the first 30 minutes. “You have to play your ‘A’ game against Duke,” Orr said.
Barrett (0-4 shooting at the half, no points, three turnovers) could have sung “Me And My Shadow” in his collegiate finale the way Duhon was suffocating him on defense.
“Some of my shots went in and out; they keyed on me,” Barrett said.
Shavlik Randolph drove past Kelly Whitney, Luol Deng (20 points) converted a three-point off a feed from Randolph, Redick hit a jumper, Deng met no resistance inside and Randolph’s high-flying jam over a sprawled Whitney that sent the Cameron Crazies to their feet turned a 24-17 game into a 35-17 game. Morris finally broke a drought that lasted nearly five minutes with a short jumper. Morris, from Barrett, converted a three-point play that cut the deficit to 37-22.
“Let’s go, Barrett! Wake up!” one Hall supporter yelled.
The Pirates did wake up with the help of a zone that temporarily frustrated the Devils and a three-ball by Andre Sweet capped a nine-point run that pushed them to within 37-28.
But a right-wing triple by Redick (17 first-half points) and a bucket by Deng falling backwards stopped the Hall’s momentum.
With the game no longer in doubt eight minutes into the second half, one Seton Hall rooter yelled out: “Hey Krzyzewski, [former Hall coach and Duke aide Tommy] Amaker [stinks]!”
One Seton Hall fan behind press row had taunted the Devils during pregame warmups with: “Duhon, come over here so I can punch you in your rib!”
That probably wouldn’t have worked, either.
