Wake Forest University
Duke
Deacons Fall At No. 8 Duke 90-70
1/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2010
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DURHAM, N.C. - Duke used a 22-7 second-half run to break a 55-55 tie and take a hard-fought 90-70 ACC victory over Wake Forest Sunday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
With the win, Duke improves to 15-2 on the year and 3-1 in the conference while the Deacons fall to 12-4 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
Sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu led all scores with 22 points and he also pulled down 10 rebounds for his 11th double-double of the year. Senior Chas McFarland poured in a season-high 17 points and also grabbed 10 boards. Freshman Ari Stewart played well in his first trip to Cameron, scoring 14 points on 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Duke had four players in double-figures led by Kyle Singler's 21. He also grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with two steals. Nolan Smith added 20 points while Miles Plumlee chipped-in with a career-high 19 points and 14 rebounds.
The game was physical on both ends of the court as there were a total of 47 fouls on the night. As a result, neither team was able to shoot the ball very well, as Duke shot 42.9 percent and Wake managed 39.4 percent.
The Blue Devils won the slugfest on the boards 48-41 and made 26-of-32 free throws on the nights.
The first half belonged to the Plumlee brothers as Miles had 13 points and 11 boards while Mason Plumlee added 10. The Deacs were led by Aminu who had 12 points and nine rebounds while McFarland chipped-in 10 points and six boards.
The game started out slow as a number of fouls were called on both ends of the floor. Behind Miles Plumlee, the Blue Devils built a couple of six-point leads at 15-9 and 23-17. With Duke up 26-21, Ari Stewart knocked down his first three of the night to spark an 11-2 Wake run that saw the visitors take their largest lead of the night at 32-28.
The Deacs kept the four-point advantage at 34-30 but Duke would close the half on a 16-4 run, capped by a big three-pointer by Jon Scheyer with seven seconds left to take a 46-38 lead at the break.
Duke then scored the first four points of the second half to open-up a 12-point lead but a couple of buckets from C.J. Harris and Aminu followed by a three-pointer from L.D. Williams help Wake cut the margin to five at 50-45. The run continued as a dunk on the break by Aminu evened the score at 55-55 with 14:05 to play.
But the story of the night was the way that Duke responded to Wake's runs and this time it was a three-pointer by Singler and an old-fashioned three-point play by Scheyer that sparked a 22-5 Blue Devil run.
The Blue Devils led by 15-points with 6:40 and would make seven of their final eight free throws in the closing minutes to provide the final margin of 90-70.
Wake will return to action this Wednesday as they travel right back down Tobacco Road to face the Tar Heels of North Carolina. The game is scheduled for a 7 pm tip and can be seen on ESPN.
