Duke advances to Sweet 16 with 74-69 win over Texas

By Jake Lloyd

Finally, the Duke Blue Devils can put the past two seasons behind them.

Before Saturday’s 74-69 win over seventh-seeded Texas, Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer sat on the bench waiting to be introduced as players in Duke’s starting lineup.

Henderson had a message for his fellow junior and team captain.

“He looked at me and he said, ‘Don’t forget about last year’ while we sat,” Scheyer said. “That was a big thing, that makes a big difference.

“I don’t listen to a lot of things he says, but that was something I actually listened to.”

Almost exactly a year ago, Henderson and Scheyer walked off the Verizon Center court in Washington, D.C., together and watched, depressed, as Purdue players prepared to take part in the next game.

It was a feeling that killed them inside and lingered until a much more joyful walk back to the Duke locker room Saturday.

“It was a lot different,” Scheyer said. “We were both celebrating walking off. It was a lot different obviously.”

On Saturday Henderson scored 24 points, Kyle Singler had 17 and Scheyer added 13 for the second-seeded Blue Devils (30-6).

But the style of game wasn’t that different from Duke’s season-ending 73-67 loss to West Virginia last season.. To reach their first Sweet 16 since 2006, the Blue Devils had to overcome a big, physical Texas team that rebounds the ball well.

Even tougher, they had to overcome a Texas comeback from a 10-point deficit in the second half. The Longhorns trailed for almost the entire game, but tied it at 67 on a long jumper by Varez Ward with 1 minute, 43 seconds remaining.

A.J. Abrams led Texas (23-12) with 17 points, Ward added 16 and Damion James had 15.

The Devils had done a good job for almost the entire game of shadowing the sharpshooter Abrams with several defenders. They had battled almost rebound for rebound with Texas’ gigantic front line, led by 6-foot-10, 298-pound Dexter Pittman.

But in a matter of 6 minutes, the Longhorns annihilated a 10-point deficit.

“It’s the NCAA Tournament and we know anything can happen,” said Nolan Smith, who had 11 points. “They’re going to make their runs and the main thing is we had enough composure to stay calm and continue to make the plays.”

They weren’t pretty plays, but the Devils did what they failed to do a year ago — they gritted out an ugly game in the final minutes against a team just as desperate to win.

First Singler seemingly flew over a pair of defenders to tap in a miss by Henderson and give Duke a 69-67 advantage.

“Kyle put in one of the most spectacular tip-ins to put us up by two,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

But he fouled out on Texas’ next possession battling for a rebound, and Texas’ Gary Johnson made a pair of free throws to retie the game. But the 6-2 Smith then battled for a rebound and got a similar foul call.

His pair of free throws with 47 seconds left gave Duke the lead for good, 71-69.

“At that point in the game, I just really wanted to attack the offensive rebound because they had all their guys to rebound so we had to crash (the boards),” Smith said.

After James had his 3-pointer spin out, Henderson made a free throw with 30.8 seconds remaining for a 72-69 advantage.

The Longhorns then missed two shots, and as he was about to crash into the Texas bench Scheyer flipped the ball high in the air toward the other end of the court. Elliot Williams was fouled by Johnson as he pursued the high-bouncing ball.

But the Devils needed one more play to finally pull out the second-round game, to finally claim their spot in the Sweet 16 — a place where none of Duke’s best players have been.

Williams missed both free throws, but the second one got tipped around a few times before the ball came bouncing toward Henderson. With a Texas player flying at him, he got down on his knees and corralled the ball.

Two free throws later, he and Scheyer could take their jubilant walk off the court.

“Coach said it was a man’s game, not just for hitting jump shots or scoring buckets,” Henderson said. “I think the biggest thing was rebounding.”

The Longhorns outrebounded the Devils 36-31, but Duke got those big boards — or got fouled going after them — down the stretch and made sure there wasn’t a repeat of a year ago, when West Virginia simply outworked Duke and got every loose ball.

“We had more fight, more fight,” Smith said. “This year’s team is on a mission and the ACC championship — that wasn’t our only mission. We’re still on a mission and we’re fighting together.

“That’s the difference between this year and last year. Last year, West Virginia hit us and they knocked us back with their rebounding and we never hit them back.”

Henderson epitomized Duke’s fighting spirit. From the beginning of the game, he saw a matchup he thought he could exploit — 6-2 Justin Mason was guarding the 6-4 Henderson — and he attacked it.

He didn’t shoot well, going just 7-for-21, but he stayed aggressive until the end. He let everyone inside the Greensboro Coliseum know that he wasn’t afraid to take the big shots or drive right at Texas’ interior line of defenders.

He finished 10-of-13 from the free-throw line, including the two big ones that iced the back-and-forth contest.

“Down the stretch I just rode him,” Krzyzewski said. “We were going to sink or swim with him, and we’re swimming.”

The Devils can’t say they’re swimming without a little luck, however. When James released his 3-pointer from in front of his bench, it looked good — it looked like Texas would take its first lead since 6-4 early in the first half.

But the ball spun out of the hoop, the Texas fans groaned and Williams pulled down a tough rebound.

“They did miss shots,” Singler said candidly. “James had a 3 that went in and out. You see so many times that go in. We did, I don’t want to say luck out. Sometimes that’s how it goes.

“And toward the end of the game we made plays.”

Because of those plays, and maybe a little good fortune, Duke’s players can at long last put the past two years to bed. Scheyer said that Krzyzewski has done a good job of not letting the pressure of the past’s disappointments weigh on them.

That job should be easier now. And the players can simply look forward to the games ahead, to playing No. 3 seed Villanova (28-7) in Boston Thursday night, without thinking of the ones behind them.

“We’re happy to be there,” Lance Thomas said of being in the Sweet 16, “but we’re not satisfied.

“We’re going to keep moving forward and keep trying to win games.”