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DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Maybe no team in the country can exploit a weakness better than No. 1 Duke.
|  | | Carlos Boozer pointed Duke toward its showdown with No. 3 Maryland on Sunday with an easy win. |
Carlos Boozer scored a career-high 32 points as the Blue Devils
warmed up for their Atlantic Coast Conference showdown this weekend
at Maryland by blasting North Carolina State (No. 24 AP) 108-71 Thursday
night.
"We saw in the first game they had a hard time guarding down low," point guard Jason Williams said. "And today when I was driving their big guys kept coming to me. That left Carlos open for a lot of easy baskets. When you have a guy in there that big you really can't miss him."
Boozer was 13-of-14 from the field as Duke (23-1, 11-1) moved one-half game ahead of the third-ranked Terrapins in the ACC. Both teams have one loss and no other club in the league has fewer than four.
"I think we have the best perimeter in the country right," Boozer said. "They can penetrate and dish and they did a great job of passing it to me. Our guards can break down teams with ease."
All of Duke's victories since its Jan. 6 loss to Florida State
have been by double digits and the Blue Devils beat the Wolfpack
(18-7, 7-5) for the 12th straight time and 17 of the last 18.
"Tonight we witnessed an awesome basketball team on all
cylinders," Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek said.
Anthony Grundy and Ilian Evtimov led the Wolfpack, ranked for
the first time in two years, with 16 points each.
N.C. State came in with the ACC's best scoring defense at 64.1
points a game, but gave up a season-high point total and the most
under Sendek in 185 games. It was also the most the program has
given up since Duke scored 110 on Feb. 15, 1992, as Duke shot 69
percent in the second half and 63 percent for the game.
"The second half was pretty ideal," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski
said. "In the first half they just knocked us back. They are
really a very, very good basketball team and for 10 minutes they
were ahead of us."
But the game lasts 40 minutes, and Duke did its usual job of wearing down an opponent.
"We really swung the ball around everywhere tonight," Williams said. "It seemed like we had eight guys on the court instead of five."
Boozer was 34-of-48 from the field in five career games against
the Wolfpack, and Evtimov, a freshman, was no match for the
6-foot-9, 290-pound center this time either.
Boozer missed his first shot 35 seconds in, then made 13 straight to register his first 30-point game of his career. The previous high for the junior was 28 points twice, the most recent this season at Boston College.
"I was responsible for the one shot he missed," Sendek said
when asked about Boozer's performance. "The other 13 makes and the
four times he went to the foul line that was somebody else."
Williams added 20 points for Duke, which has been No. 1 in The Associated Press poll 13 of 14 weeks.
Duke shot 57 percent in the first half, then started the second half 8-of-11 to push a 10-point lead to 21 less than five minutes in.
Boozer had a slam dunk and a layup in Duke's spurt.
Things were going so good for Boozer that he even made a shot in
the lane after having the ball stripped out of his hands as he was
going up, giving Duke a 77-53 lead with 11:40 left and the rout was
on.
"I think Carlos touched the ball 20 times and we scored on 19
of them," Duke's Mike Dunleavy said. "Percentage-wise, that's
pretty good."
Duke was up by 24 at halftime a month ago in Raleigh, but this
one was much closer for most of the opening 20 minutes.
In fact, the Wolfpack opened an early seven-point lead as Marcus
Melvin scored nine straight points and N.C. State made seven of its
first 10 shots.
The score was tied five times during the middle portion of the
period before Boozer took over inside, scoring 11 of his 15
first-half points over the final 8:27.
The Wolfpack used a technical foul against Dahntay Jones for jawing after a hoop and a reverse layup by Evtimov to close to 40-37, but Boozer made two follow shots and Williams had a 3-pointer and two free throws as Duke went up by 10 at the break.
N.C. State shot 62.5 percent in the first half, but the ACC's
best ballhandling team coughed it up 11 times. The Wolfpack came in
averaging just 13 turnovers a game.
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Mr. Clutch