Temple University Athletics
DUKE REMAINS UNDEFEATED WITH 82-74 WIN OVER TEMPLE
1.8.05 | Men's Basketball
DURHAM, NC - Junior Mardy Collins and sophomore Dustin Salisbery scored 23 and 21 points, respectively, but Duke connected on 13 three-pointers and remained undefeated (11-0) with a 82-74 victory on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Owls drew within five points at 77-72 with 1:31 to play but Duke went five-for-six from the charity stretch to hold off the visitors. Temple falls to 5-6 on the season and hosts Fordham on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
"It was a great win for us and obviously it's an honor to play against John [Chaney] and his kids," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. "Collins is one of the better players we've played against in the past couple years. He's a smooth player at 6'6". We put good pressure on the ball and thought we might be able to wear him out but he didn't get worn out. He was just there all the time. He's a really, really good player."
"When you have a well-oiled team playing against a great coach and it's very difficult to think that you're just going to walk in and somebody's going to lay down and play dead," said Temple mentor John Chaney. "I'm pretty proud of my guys. They kept pecking away and if any of you didn't see that, you must be blind...it takes complete focus and staying in touch with the game for 40 minutes and that's very difficult for young kids today, especially playing away from home."
The game was also a chess match between the two Hall of Fame and 700-win coaches. Chaney, known for his match-up zone, would forgo it at times, with a box-and-one on J.J. Redick (22 points), arguably the best shooter in college basketball. The Temple mentor also utilized a triangle-and-two, in an attempt to take Ewing out of the contest as well.
Krzyzewski, who sat down with Chaney for a 30-minute ESPN interview on Friday morning, tried to push the Owls into a faster tempo with a pressing man-to-man defense.
After uncharacteristically turning the ball over on their first two possessions, the Owls regrouped and took an 8-2 lead courtesy of consecutive three-pointers by Antywane Robinson and Collins. Daniel Ewing, who led the Blue Devils with a game-high 24 points, scored the next five points, igniting 12-2 Duke run to give the Blue Devils a 14-10 lead with 12:14 to play in the half.
The Owls would quickly tie the game on two baskets by Salisbery. That would be the way the game would continue as Duke would try to pull away only to find the pesky Owls close the gap.
Both teams' defenses worked to a degree. The Owls held the Blue Devils to just four-of-16 from behind the arc in the first half, but still trailed 36-32.
Collins (11) and Robinson (8), a Charlotte, NC native, combined for 19 of Temple's first half points on seven-of-12 shooting. The rest of the Owls hit just four-of-19 from the field with freshman Mark Tyndale continuing to struggle with his shot (1-9).
Duke appeared to be on the verge of breaking the game wide open early in the second half, as Lee Melchionni drained two threes from the right corner and Redick pulled up for one of his five three-pointers to cap a 9-0 run. That gave the Blue Devils their largest lead, 49-39, with 14:07 to play.
A slam by Salisbery and a baseline jumper by Wayne Marshall cut the margin to six, but Duke countered with a three-pointer and basket by Ewing to extend the lead to 11 points (57-46).
The teams traded baskets over the next two minutes before the Owls closed the gap to five points, 60-55, on a Tyndale three-point play and a Salisbery dunk off one of six Collins assists. The nation's steals leader also was credited with the steal on the play, one of his game-high six in the contest.
Again Duke pushed it back to 10 points (65-55), on their own five-point run, capped by a Sean Dockery three-pointer at the 6:47 mark. And again, Temple came storming back with Collins scoring five straight to make it 65-60.
The teams then traded baskets with Ewing and Salisbery each draining two treys over the next three minutes.
After a Marshall baseline jumper made the score 77-72 Duke with 1:27 to play, Temple had its chance to get to a one-possession game, but it slipped out of their hands. Dockery missed the front end of a one-and-one, only to have Shelden Williams (10 points) control the rebound.
Temple was then forced to foul Redick, the ACC all-time free throw percentage leader (.941) for the remainder of the game. The junior guard drained five-of-six, with the Cameron Crazies in disbelief when he missed.
That was enough to close out the game for Duke, which has now won 85 of its last 86 games against unranked non-conference foes at Cameron.
Salisbery set career highs in points and minutes played (40) for the Owls, which shot 16-of-31 from the field in the second half.
