Live Blog: Devils' huge 2nd half crushes BU, Duke wins 86-62

By Adam Harris

11:51 p.m. - Duke opened the 2nd half with a bruising 15-2 run and never looked back.  Duke will play Texas on Saturday at about 8:15.  UNC vs. LSU will lead off Saturday's action here in Greensboro at 5:45.

Final score - Duke 86, BU 62

 

11:45 p.m. -  Singler is replaced by Brian Zoubek, and the few fans that are still in the building gave Singler a rousing ovation as he exited.  His stat line is not overly impressive with 10 points and 8 rebounds (unofficially), but his energy  and leadership seemed to pick up the Devils in the 2nd half.  A couple of big three pointers by Singler helped to build the momentum that eventually carried Duke to a big lead.

3 minutes to play - Duke leads 80-53

 

11:34 p.m. -  The life has been sucked out of the building it seems.  After a furious first half from both teams, and a stellar performance from Duke to begin the 2nd half, the energy is just not there. Duke built their big lead and now seems like they're in cruise control.  The quick scoring spurt from the Blue Devils looks as if it was enough to kill the spirits of BU.  I'm hoping to see the game pick up a bit again, it's starting to feel like a 15/2 match-up.  What fun is that?  The building is very quiet. Maybe the fans, and players, are starting to fatigue from a long day at the Coliseum.  Even the BU pep band isn't as lively as it was earlier.

8 minutes left, Duke leads 71-49

 

 

11:23 p.m. -  Don't stick a fork in them yet, but BU is starting to fold a bit.  Prior to a brief scoring outburst from Rivera, Duke led by as many 26 points.  It's now a battle for respectability for the Bearcats.  Duke has come out firing on all cylinders and really kept their foot on the gas.  The wind is starting to fall out of BU's sail.

11 minutes to play, Duke leads 67-42

 

11:10 p.m. -  Duke's intensity level is visibly high in the 2nd half.  The Devils were hardly lackluster before the break, but Singler, Thomas, Henderson and Williams have all exchanged chest bumps or hugs at least twice each in the couple of mintues of action in the second half.  After just about every play the Duke players are in one another's face.  The increased energy is translating into points also.  A Scheyer three-pointer has just increased the Devils' second half-opening run to 15-2.  It appears Duke wanted to put BU away instantly after halftime, and they may have done it.  Will the Bearcats respond?  We'll see.  Foul frustration is setting again for BU, as they've already racked up four fouls in the first four minutes of play.

Duke's lead is now 60-36 with just under 16 minutes to play

 

10:57 p.m. - 10 assists on 14 field goals.  Coach K will love that.  What he won't like quite as much is the BU shooting percentage at 53.8%.  The Bearcats are also 54.5% from behind the arc, very impressive.  That probably won't continue, and neither is the Blue Devils' 25% from three point range likely to keep up.  Duke is hitting just less than half of the their shots, at 48.3% shooting in the first half. 

If BU can control the ball a bit better, this may stay close until the bitter end.  The Bearcats have turned the ball over 13 times, to only 6 assists.  The Devils are captalizing on the BU TO's too, Duke has scored 17 points off of turnovers thus far.  Meanwhile, outside of Singler's 4 turnovers, Duke is maintaining possession very consistently.  Duke is also getting in done in the paint, 24 points in the blocks for Duke, and 17 rebounds for the Devils, including 7 offensive boards.

2nd half action is about to begin, stay tuned to this one

 

 

10:45 p.m. - Duke has their hands full.  This BU team won't die.  The Bearcats have a very firey personality as a team.  The BU fans have a similar demeanor - a chip-on-the-shoulder mentality is working well for BU.  I have to give serious props to the BU pep band, by the way.  I've seen a lot of college pep bands and BU is the best by far.  They're rowdy, and playing funky stuff for the fans.  Duke's band is usually pretty strong, but the Devils' pep kids need to step it up to match the BU band led by a big jovial fella calling himself "Mo Music"

Halftime score - Duke 45, BU 34.  I'll be back with some official stats in a minute or two. Unofficially, Tiki Mayben leads all scorers with 11 points.

 

 

10:39 p.m. -  Both Duke and Binghamton are hovering around the 50% mark in field goals.  The Devils and Bearcats are also both hitting their three's.  BU is 5-of-10 from three-point range, keeping the Bearcats in this contest.

Another sign of offensive efficiency - with 75 total points scored between the two teams, neither Duke nor BU has a single player in double digits.  Both teams are sharing the ball quite well.

43-31, Duke leads it with just under two mintues left in the opening frame

 

 

10:30 p.m. - A great transition game for the Bearcats has paid off here in the last few minutes.  DJ Rivera is showing his stuff by slicing to the basket for easy baskets, and then distributing to his post players for helpers.  A couple of calls are starting to go BU's way, including a charge whistled on Singler to give BU possession.  Singler has 2 fouls, as does Scheyer.  But, fouls are a much bigger concern for the Bearcats.  Star guard DJ Rivera has 2 fouls, as does Malik Alvin, another starter for BU.  The Bearcats' big man Reggie Fuller has 3 fouls too.  BU seemingly was in the double-bonus by the ten-minute mark.

35-28 Duke with less than four minutes remaining in the first half

 

 

10:22 p.m. - After a hard-fought loose ball under the Duke basket, BU coach Kevin Broadus laid into the officials and got called for a technical foul.  This has been an extremely physical game, especially considering there aren't a lot of big bodies on the floor.  It's a match-up of mostly guards and wing players, but the hand-checking, hip-bumping and shoulder-pounding are occurring on virtually every play.  Nolan Smith shot the two freebies after the BU technical, making only one.  

Less than nine minutes to play in the first half, Duke now leads 27-12

 

10:14 p.m. -  It's rare a guy has THAT long to set up his shot.  A quick and effective possession of five passes around the perimeter was finished off with a powerful drive to the lane by Paulus.  Once the senior Devil was under the basket he fired a pass out to Singler on the wing and #12 knocked it down after taking his sweet time.  A big shot that brought the Duke fans to their feet, and extended the Devils' lead to 19-7 with 11:25 to play in the first half.

 

10:06 p.m. -  Eliot Williams is getting a lot of touches.  His 6 points lead all scorers, 3-of-4 from the field.  Duke has pulled away a bit with the help of signature tough defensive plays; challenging interior shots and pressuring the ball at the perimeter. 

Duke now leads 14-7 with 12 mintues to play in the opening half

A Greg Paulus sighting!  I wasn't sure if he was still in the rotation for Coach K or not. 

 

9:59 p.m. - Duke leads 10-7.  Jon Scheyer leads the Devils with 5 points.   This looks like it will be a game decided behind the arc.  Duke's been heavy-handed with the three's, and DJ Rivera just knocked one down for BU.

10-7 Duke with 15 minutes remaining in the first half

 

9:56 p.m. - It's only a few minutes into the game and already Binghamton has five team fouls.  Starting BU guard Tiki Mayben has two of them.  The Bearcats/Tar Heels fans are letting the refs have it.  I'm not sure the calls have been bad ones, but it seems the officials are going to call any-and-all contact in this one.

BU 4, Duke 2

 

9:50 p.m. - Moments before Duke and Binghamton get started.  I'm just getting back to my spot on press row after speaking with Texas players and Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes.  An NC native and former Clemson coach, Barnes wouldn't comment on getting booed tonight by the pro-UNC crowd.  Tar Heels fans will have a difficult choice of who to boo more frequently on Saturday if Duke and Texas face off as expected.

Enjoy this #15 vs. #2 game, I'll post after a couple minutes of action.

 

9:18 p.m. - The Longhorns are on to the round of 32.  AJ Abrams was the man tonight for Rick Barnes.  No one is surprised to read that.  We've all heard of Abrams and his abilities, but perhaps you've never heard of Dexter Pittman.  The big fella' vitals?  Six-ten, 298 pounds.  He looks even bigger than that, dude is a power forward in a linebacker's body.

Pittman finished with 17 points, 11 rebounds.  Abrams led all scorers with 26 points; all but two of his points came from behind the arc.  Abrams was 8-of-15 from three point range.  Final score - Texas 76, Minnesota 62. 

A Duke win sends the Blue Devils into a match-up with Rick Barnes and the Longhorns on Saturday.

WOW!!  The Duke players just took the floor for pre-game warmups and the crowd was deafening with "Booooo" screams.  Playing an hour away from home is probably only this tough for Duke.  I can't imagine another team that would get this treatment so close to their campus.  Despite a heavy contingent of Duke fans in the house, the combination of UNC & BU fans might just give Duke the feel of playing a true road game.

 

 

9:08 p.m. - The shade of blue in the stands has grown darker in the last few hours.  While it was a sea of sky blue this afternoon, the Greensboro Coliseum now seems predominately royal blue.  The opening act for the Blue Devils vs. the Bearcats is exactly that; merely an opening act to this crowd.  That said, Texas vs. Minnesota is a pretty fun game to watch.  The Longhorns pulled away from the Gophers behind their senior guard AJ Abrams about midway through the second half.  Abrams is performing like a star - nearing 30 points right now and bombing three-pointers like it were his job.

While the crowd is mostly Dukies, I have to applaud the Binghamton faithful here tonight.  For what they lack in numbers, they more than make up for in enthusiasm.  There have been several "Let's go Bearcats!" chants during the Texas-Minnesota game.  The BU pep band is seated directly to my right, and they are in a seemingly constant back-and-forth with the section of BU fans over my left shoulder.  The Tar Heels fans had a lot to celebrate today, but no fan base in Greensboro is more jovial than the Binghamton faithful.  I know there's a lot of relocated New Yorkers in NC, but I have to think this is more than that.  The BU fans have traveled to watch the first NCAA Tournament game in the school's history.

I've just been handed the starting line-ups for Duke vs. Binghamton:

Blue Devils - Kyle Singler, Gerald Henderson, Eliot Williams, Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas

Bearcats - DJ Rivera, Malik Alvin, Reggie Fuller, Tiki Maybe, Chretien Lukusa

We all expect Duke to win tonight.  I fully anticipate the Blue Devils will send the Bearcats packing right back to NY.  However, there are a couple of reasons to think BU could make it competitive tonight.

Reason 1) Bearcats head coach Kevin Broadus is no stranger to these Blue Devils players.  He was an assistant at Georgetown under John Thompson III prior to landing the job at BU.  He's seen Henderson, Scheyer and Thomas in person at least twice from an opposing bench.  Broadus also worked the Duke Basketball Camp when he was young and is good friends with Johnny Dawkins.  The Bearcats coach knows what Mike Krzyzewski teaches, and that could be a feather in BU's cap tonight. 

Reason 2) DJ Rivera is probably talented enough to play for any school in the country.  The sophomore guard is long and quick, and averages better than 20 points per game.  I don't have to tell you because you've already heard it a million times, "Guard play is one of the most critical elements of winning games in the NCAA Tournament."  Neither team in the late game will have a big post presence.  Okay, Brian Zoubek has come on a bit lately, but let's be real.  Duke is a back-court oriented team.  BU is the same way.  If the game becomes a shooting contest and Rivera gets hot, the Bearcats could stay in the game.

We've already seen one #2 seed struggle today.  I'm willing to bet Coach K spoke to his players about the close call Memphis encountered today versus Cal State Northridge.  Expect Duke to come out hungry and ready to play in front of their fans. 

A Blue Devils win tonight and it appears they'll be facing a gritty Longhorns team on Saturday.  A Duke win tonight over BU also means 11-0 all-time for the Devils at Greensboro Coliseum in the NCAA Tournament.

 

 

 

Adam Harris of 99.9 FM The Fan is writing live from the Duke-Binghamton game at the Greensboro Coliseum.