No. 2 Duke 82, Clemson 60

Ahead only 32-29 at Clemson after 20 minutes, the Blue Devils were an edgy, unhappy bunch Wednesday night.

Their leading scorers, Trajan Langdon and Elton Brand, were a combined two of nine from the field. The Tigers' young lineup had muscled up to the kings of the Atlantic Coast Conference for a half, and the Blue Devils didn't like it.

``We put a lot of game pressure on ourselves and we tend to do that when we don't blow teams out early,'' said Shane Battier.

So Battier nailed two 3-pointers to start the second half, Brand became his old jamming self, and Duke (18-1, 7-0) blew past Clemson for its 13th straight victory.

``The second half I wanted to assert myself and finish,'' said Brand, who scored 17 of his 22 points after the break.

William Avery had 18 points, 12 in the first half, and was nearly flawless with the basketball as Duke finished with almost as many blocks (seven) as turnovers (eight).

The Tigers (12-7, 1-5), playing without suspended starters Vincent Whitt and Johnny Miller and injured sixth man Tony Christie, couldn't do much to slow Duke.

Leading scorer Terrell McIntyre went just 5-of-18 from the field for 13 points. Copyright ©1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed.Contents