No. 7 Duke dominates No. 20 Wisconsin, 82-58
By The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:23 AM CST
Mike Krzyzewski and Duke sure know how to handle a Big Ten test. Making up for a glaring size disadvantage by turning up the tempo, the seventh-ranked Blue Devils ran No. 20 Wisconsin right out of Cameron Indoor Stadium in an 82-58 rout Tuesday night.
Greg Paulus scored 13 of his 18 points during the decisive first half, helping Duke improve to 9-0 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and remain the only team with a perfect record in the annual event.
"We could not play a game where we were going to try to muscle them inside," Krzyzewski said. "Otherwise, we'd get killed. They're so efficient we have to try to make it more of a perimeter game, and we were able to do that a lot. That's why we won."
Freshman Taylor King added 15 points on five 3-pointers in his second consecutive strong game off the bench. Fellow rookie Kyle Singler had 13 points, Gerald Henderson added 11 and Jon Scheyer scored 10 for the Blue Devils (7-0), who have won five games in nine days.
Duke entered wondering how it would match up against a Badgers front line that featured three players in the rotation who are 6-foot-10 or taller. But its up-tempo offense and swarming, aggressive defense dominated from the opening tip.
"They're a big team, and they're a very good team, and we needed everybody defensively to rebound, or try to, because they're a little bit bigger than us," Paulus said. "We needed everybody to help out, dig out loose balls, and I thought we did a good job of that."
In other Top 25 games, it was: No. 3 Memphis 104, Austin Peay 82; No. 11 Tennessee 93, North Carolina A&T 59; No. 14 Pittsburgh 80, Boston University 53; No. 15 Indiana 83, Georgia Tech 79; and No. 18 Clemson 61, Purdue 58.
Duke, which didn't start a player taller than 6-8, held its own on the glass: Wisconsin had just a 42-40 rebounding advantage. The Blue Devils also forced 18 turnovers, hit 11 3-pointers and scored 17 fast-break points, turning their first legitimate test at home into a blowout. It was their NCAA-best 55th straight non-conference home-court victory.
Jon Leuer and Trevon Hughes scored 12 points apiece and Brian Butch had 11 for Wisconsin (5-1), which was denied its first 6-0 start since 1996-97. Hughes, the team's leading scorer, was held more than seven points below his average on 4-for-13 shooting.
"If anything could go wrong, it did," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. "The second half seemed pretty even on the (stat) sheet, but when you're playing down in a hole like that, it's almost impossible for our kids to come back."
