DURHAM, N.C. – Dennis Wolff knew they brought it. Mike Krzyzewski, Shelden Williams and J.J. Redick knew it too. Even the Cameron Crazies knew Boston University had made it a game.
On Monday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium, home of No. 1 Duke University, there was no blowout in sight.
The Terrier men’s basketball team took it to the Blue Devils in the first round of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament, and BU’s 64-47 season-opening loss was closer – and far more important – than the score lets on.
“You’re not gonna blow this team out,” said Duke coach Krzyzewski of BU after the game. “They’re going to win a lot of games.”
BU came out firing in front of a hostile crowd of 9,314, taking the early 4-0 lead before Duke’s freshman forward Josh McRoberts (6 points, 1 steal) tipped in a rebound with 16:18 left in the first half. The Blue Devils missed their first nine shots, while the Terriers put eight points on the board in the first five minutes – an opening stretch stressed by the BU coaching staff for the past three weeks.
“I think we kinda surprised them. We came out fired up,” said senior captain and forward Kevin Gardner. “We knew if we got down early it was going to be difficult for us to get back, so we came out with the mindset to get up early and stay in the game.”
In fact, the Terriers led Duke for the first 11:49, until (who else?) last year’s NCAA Player of the Year J.J. Redick sunk two free throws to take the lead, 20-19.
“I think from the tap they may have stunned us a little bit,” said Duke starting forward Lee Melchionni (8 points, 1 block, 2 steals).
The traditionally stingy Terrier defense limited Redick to 19 points, five of them free throws, while denying him a single three-pointer in a trio of tries – ending Redick’s 21-game streak with a three. The only other Blue Devil to hit double digits was last year’s NCAA Defensive Player of the Year, Shelden Williams (17 points).
BU held the rest of the Devils to a .310 field goal percentage (9-for-29). “We didn’t shoot the ball very well and a lot of that was because of their defense,” said Duke guard Greg Paulus. “They deserve a lot of credit for what they did.”
Still, with 8:11 left in the opening frame, BU lost the lead for good.
The Terriers were running out of steam and had been out of fouls for a while, running up the total early on. Gardner (8 points) hit the last layup of the half for the Terriers with 4:09 left, and senior captain and preseason America East first-teamer Shaun Wynn missed a big shot from three-point land with 33 seconds remaining to enter the break down 40-26.
Three Terriers entered halftime with three fouls – Gardner and redshirt freshmen Ibrahim Konate and Ben Coblyn – while freshman starter Corey Hassan entered with a pair.
“We kinda knew we weren’t gonna get many calls and we were gonna have a lot called against us,” Gaffney said. “It would have been nice to have a few more calls and a few less called against us, but that’s what happens when you work hard on defense.”
But in the second frame, it was Duke that came out fully loaded, stepping up its defense and forcing the Terriers to either convert or turn it over on almost every possession.
“We made a lot of turnovers, but it was our first game,” said Wynn.
The Duke defense forced 26 of them, seven by sophomore guard DeMarcus Nelson alone. BU’s speedy 5-foot-8 (a generous offer) junior transfer Brian Macon led the team with seven turnovers, despite being the sparkplug of the Terrier offense.
“He was quick,” Paulus said of Macon. “They gave us some trouble. They did a great job of hanging on. They didn’t quit. We kept trying to make runs at them, but they kept fighting back.”
Macon was one of seven Terriers to get their first Division I minutes against the Blue Devils.
“I thought [the first-timers] showed a lot of poise right from the beginning,” said BU coach Wolff. “They didn’t appear to be intimidated by the circumstances, which is a good thing for us. Considering the circumstances and the ages of our players, I thought our kids gave a real gutsy effort. I thought we completed on every possession right to the end of the game.”
“I’m proud of them,” Wynn said. “To see those guys come out and play against the No. 1 team in the nation, I think they handled themselves well. I think they handled themselves like guys who are gonna have good college careers.”
But with 13:19 left in the game, Duke went on a nine-point run over four minutes that brought the score to 53-37 and blew the game wide open. The Terriers scored just 21 points in the second half (while holding Duke to just 24) and just one basket in the final five minutes.
“We did have a few mental lapses,” Gaffney said. “Who knows what would have happened if we had held off on that big run they had.”
“I thought we played well tonight,” Hassan said. “If they hadn’t had that run we would have been right in the game the whole time.”
And despite scoring just two points on the night, Wynn led the defense, living up to his preseason America East First Team selection in 29 minutes of play while anchoring the BU squad.
“I feel like as a team we could guard anybody in the country,” Gardner said. “We kinda proved it tonight, holding them to what we did. … They’re human too, its not like they’re supernatural or anything.”
The Terriers return to Boston today knowing that they gave the nation’s top team a true run for their money. They return home having proved early that they can hang with the best of the very best.
“My hat’s off to them,” Krzyzewski said. “We would have lost if we didn’t play hard and we didn’t play well defensively.”
“We’ve never been intimidated going into a game,” Wynn said. “Number one team, last-place team – we’re gonna play the same way.”
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