Thursday Morning Shootaround

It was a tale of two halves in Durham. During the first half, Duke was able to contain Ty Lawson and got 24 combined points out of Jon Scheyer and Gerald Henderson. In the second half, Lawson took over the game, scoring 21 of his 25 points and getting into the lane at will. Duke simply had no one that could stay in front of him. Greg Paulus didn't really have a chance. Nolan Smith got burned on a number of occasions. Down the stretch, Duke even tried switching every ball screen, which just made matters worse. If Lawson didn't beat Singler or McClure off the dribble, he would find Hansbrough, Thompson, or Davis in the post with a point guard on them.

The difference, for me at least, between the first half and the second half was simply the defense that UNC played, especially on the perimeter. I don't know if I have ever seen the Heels work that hard on that end. Duke wasn't penetrating as easily, and when they did, UNC's bigs were able to help and recover. Scheyer and Henderson were a complete non-factor until the last few minutes, when the game was decided.

The decisive run came with about seven minutes left as the Heels reeled off 14 straight to open up a 17 point lead.

Kyle Singler led Duke with 22.

UConn dominated Syracuse en route to their 12th straight win. Hasheem Thabeet once again controlled this game on the defensive end with 15 boards and 7 blocks. His presence in the paint combined with Onuaku's bum knee meant that Syracuse had zero post presence. This allowed the Huskies focus all their attention on slowing down Jonny Flynn and Eric Devendorf. They combined for just 28 points on 10-27 shooting. Kemba Walker, getting extended minutes with the injury to Jerome Dyson, did a great job harassing Flynn into tough shots.

Syracuse really blew a chance in the first half. The Cuse forced 14 UConn turnovers, but were unable to make the Huskies pay as they only scored seven points off of those turnovers. Syracuse has lost six of eight, but in their last eight games, only Villanova and Marquette seem to be NCAA bound. If the Orange can beat the teams they are supposed to beat, they should be ok.

The rest of last night's games:

• NC State 82, Wake Forest 76: NC State went box-and-one of Jeff Teague, holding the sophomore to 11 points on just three shots. NC State opened up a 20 point lead in the second half, which Wake cut all the way down to two with a minute left, but free throws by Ben McCauley sealed the game. Brandon Costner led the Wolfpack with 23.
• Purdue 61, Penn State 47: The Boilermakers were able to slow down Talor Battle and JaJuan Johnson had 14 and 13 in the win. Robbie Hummel, who has a small crack in his spine, missed his third straight game. Senior walk-on reserve Bobby Ridell had 13 points for Purdue.
  
• Dayton 71, Xavier 58: Chris Wright led the Flyers with 19 points as Dayton tied Xavier for the A-10 lead.
• Oklahoma 78, Baylor 63: Blake Griffin had 18 and 10 as the Sooner ripped the Bears, who look like they are now going to be NIT bound.
• LSU 97, Mississippi State 94: Tasmin Mitchell scored 41 points and had 11 boards as LSU not only proved that they can win a tough game on the road, but they opened up a two game lead in the SEC West. It looks like LSU may be the team to beat in the SEC right now.
• Utah 67, San Diego State 55: Shaun Green went for 21 and 10 as the Utes grabbed sole possession of first place in the tough Mountain West.
  
• Memphis 63, Tulsa 37
• Virginia Tech 76, Georgia Tech 71
• Cincinnati 71, St. John's 61
• BYU 94, Colorado 60
• Tennessee 79, Georgia 48
• Wisconsin 69, Iowa 52
• Kansas State 85, Texas Tech 73
  

And here is the rest of it.