Tigers' Comeback Falls Short to No. 4 Blue Devils, 92-78 |
CLEMSON, SC -- It took a while, but Duke saw Clemson's only senior
Andrius Jurkunas finally leave the floor on senior night with 17.7 seconds left in the game. It took No. 4 Duke (23-4 overall, 14-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) that long to put the game away, 92-78, against a pesky Clemson team (10-18, 4-11) Wednesday night in front of 10,000 at Littlejohn Coliseum. "We expected a tough game," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. For a while, it looked like the Blue Devils would take care of Clemson like they did a month ago in a 34-point blowout at Durham. Duke led by 16 at the half and was hitting nearly every shot it threw toward the basket. Foul trouble, though, allowed Clemson to make a run midway though the second half. "We got awful thin awful fast," said Krzyzewski. Clemson cut a 20-point Duke lead early in the second half to eight with two minutes to go in the game. Duke, however, hit nine of its last ten free throws and went on a 6-0 run in the final minute to put the game away. "Our players have staff are disappointed at our loss," said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt. "Our performance was good. I wish we could have played a little bit better and won." Jurkunas scored six points in his final game at Littlejohn and had the unenviable task of going against Duke's Shane Battier, who scored 26 points against a variety of Clemson defenders. Battier hit 3-pointers from nearly every part of the court and over nearly every Clemson defender in the first half. He hit six of seven 3-point attempts, while leading Duke to a 45-29 halftime lead. Clemson led by a point with 13:35 left in the half, but Battier then started his barrage of 3-pointers. He hit two in a row to give Duke a 13-9 lead. He hit two more during an 11-0 Duke run late in the half that gave the Blue Devils a 38-22 lead with 2:45 left. Clemson had pulled within five (27-22) on a 3-pointer by Will Solomon, but his nine points in the half wasn't enough to overcome Battier, who at 6-feet, 8-inches, was able to shoot over anyone that Clemson put on him. Duke reserve Nick Horvath added two 3-pointers as Duke hit nearly 50 percent from the floor in the half. Duke ran its lead to 51-31 early in the second half before Clemson slowly crept back into the game. "They showed a lot of heart," said Krzyzewski, who saw Clemson pull within ten (76-66) after an 11-3 run. A 3-pointer by Will Solomon, who led Clemson with 26 points, pulled Clemson within eight (79-71) with 1:56 left. A lay-up by Pasha Bains with 1:03 left again pulled Clemson within eight. That was as close as the Tigers could get. "Having everybody healthy has made us able to complete with teams like Duke," said Shyatt. Clemson travels to Georgia Tech for Bobby Cremins last home game at Georgia Tech on Saturday.
DUKE
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