Minggu, 13 Maret 2011

Blue Devils rule in ACC

When the Duke seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith came off the floor to hug Mike Krzyzewski the last minute on Sunday, even North Carolina coach Roy Williams stood up and applauded.

Singler and Smith won their third consecutive ACC Tournament, the Blue Devils '10. place in the last 13 years with a 75-58 victory over top-seeded North Carolina in Greensboro Coliseum.

With 20 points, 10 assists and the Tar Heel defense outstanding rookie point guard Kendall Marshall, ACC player of the year Smith added honor of tournament MVP to his trophy cabinet.

Singler took North Carolina forward Harrison Barnes, who had 40 points against Clemson days earlier, three points in the first half of Duke built 42-28 halftime lead.

"These are two great seniors," Williams said, "and you can not see older people hang so .... And what they did was fantastic. "

North Carolina (26-7) had returned to a deficit of 19 points against Miami on Friday and 14 points against Clemson on Saturday to win the first two games in the tournament, but was unable to recover this time.

Marshall Smith harassed into two turnovers in 76 seconds as No. 2 seed Duke (30-4) scored the first eight points and led 25-8 with 9:31 left in the first half. The Blue Devils led by 18 in the first half had a 42-28 advantage at halftime and were ahead in double digits for the seconds, all but 21 of the second half.

Barnes, whose 16 points led the Tar Heels, hit a jumper from 15 feet with 6:01 remaining to cut the lead to 63-54. Duke next two possessions, but Smith and Ryan Kelly Curry went to great open 3-point attempts.

The two Swiss plans through the curve. After Kelly 3-pointer extended the lead to 69-56 with 4:44 left, Krzyzewski jumped off the bench and pumped his fist. Curry spoke midcourt.

"I thought we played the best basketball game of the season," said Singler, who along with Curry made 11 points. "It 's nice to win the championship."

The teams split two games during the regular season with the capture of North Carolina, the championship of the ACC regular season with a 81-67 victory on March 5 Chapel Hill. Later, Smith said he was angry because the Blue Devils surrendered 51 points in the first half. Showing no signs of the foot injury he suffered in Friday's quarterfinals against Maryland, Smith set the tone defensively against Marshall. Smith pressure forced North Carolina to start their attack far from three-point arc.

Williams said Marshall was not convinced he could not go beyond Smith.

"We wanted to send a message to everyone - our fans, ourselves - that we are going to play defense and we want to be champions," said Smith.

North Carolina was held to 33.9 percent in the field and committed 16 turnovers. Each player in Tar Heel is less than half his shots.

After shooting 6-for-27 3-point range between the loss of Chapel Hill, Duke scored nine of his 20 3-point attempts. Blue Devils poured networks after recording a third win of 14 points or more in the tournament shows that they do their best, just in time for the start of the NCAA tournament later this week.

"We want to win every championship, we can," said sophomore forward Ryan Kelly. "This is the first step is preparing for the NCAA tournament."

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